Gov Otti Backs South-East’s First National Park in Abia

Abia State Governor Alex Otti has given his support for the establishment of the first National Park in the South-East, which is billed to be sited in Abia.

The governor gave his backing while receiving a delegation from the National Park Service, led by the Chairman of its Governing Council, Kingsley Ononogbu, in his office.

Otti told the delegation that Abia has 19 forest reserves, 18 of which are currently available for consideration, adding that this provides an opportunity to have at least one conservation area in each of the state’s 17 local government areas.

“Coincidences just keep happening. Earlier this morning, I approved a request from the Honourable Commissioner for Environment for the tracing of forest reserves. Clearly, there is somewhere to start from,” the governor said.

He directed the Commissioner for Environment to work with the National Park Service and relevant experts to identify a suitable location and announced that a team of climate change and environmental experts would be constituted to ensure the park’s successful establishment.

“Nature is something you cannot do away with. Sometimes, when you think you have overcome nature through technology, nature will still rise. That is why conservation is very important,” Otti said.

Ononogbu, in his remarks, said the South-East currently has zero national parks, an omission he said Abia was best positioned to correct, adding that a park in the state would create inclusion and career opportunities for the zone.

Abia Rolls Out CyTracker App To Cut Maternal, Child Deaths

Separately, the Abia State Government, through the Ministry of Health, has piloted a digital application known as CyTracker, designed to identify and track high-risk pregnancies to reduce maternal and child mortality across the state.

Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Umuahia, revealing that the application has already been used successfully to track teenage pregnancies and monitor expectant mothers through delivery.

He described the initiative as another practical demonstration of the administration’s commitment to using technology to improve healthcare outcomes.

Kanu said Abia has emerged as the number one state in healthcare affordability and among the top three in healthcare quality in Nigeria, noting that the state achieved top-three positions in 13 of 16 indicators of good governance based on citizens’ perception.

He gave an update on the functionalisation of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), saying the first 50 functionalised PHCs accounted for more than 20% of the over 1.067 million outpatient department visits recorded across the state between July 2025 and June 2026.

Kanu announced that three additional PHCs had been functionalised between July 27 and August 10, bringing the total number of functionalised centres in the state to 151.