A 30-bed hospital is to be built for the people of Mbube in Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River at the cost of N60 million.

The initiator of the project, Rev. Father Jake Otonko, said the hospital, with the state-of-the art facility, will be completed in 2013.

Speaking at a fund raising dinner for the project in Abuja, Otonko said the catchment area of the hospital has a population of over 150,000 people.

He said the hospital, when completed, will comprise an equipped theatre, laboratory, radiography facility and an administrative block. He said: the 25th anniversary of my ordination, God willing comes up in the year 2013.

"I am dreaming that the event be marked with a jubilee offering of a 30-bed hospital valued at about N60 million to the people of Mbube, Ogoja.

"My religious vows do not allow for personal and material opulence, hence this lofty dream can only be actulaised by the support of public-spirited individuals.

"It is estimated that over 100,000 Nigerians die from maternal related cases annually and this should not be so.

"In 2001, a pregnant woman in the community bled in my presence to death and nobody was able to render any medical help." The priest explained that since that incident: "This passion (building a hospital) has lived in me and the desire is to enhance the quality of people's lives."

In a speech, the House of Representatives committee chairman on Finance, Hon. John Owan, representing Obubra/Etung of Cross River, lauded the imitative by the clergyman.

Owan, an indigene of the area, pledged to rally support for the project from public-spirited individuals.

He announced a personal donation of N500,000 and pledged to commit the same amount to the project for the next three years. (NAN)