For six years, the people of Ellembelle have watched a dream slip away. What was promised as a $14-million state-of-the-art health facility has become nothing more than an overgrown ghost site, leaving residents to plead for action.
For decades, St. Martin de Porres Hospital at Eikwe has been a critical lifeline not just for the three Nzema municipalities, but for patients traveling as far as Côte d’Ivoire. However, a bold initiative to expand that lifeline into a modern teaching hospital now lies in ruins.
On October 16, 2020, then-GNPC Board Chairman Freddie Blay and CEO Dr. Kofi Koduah Sarpong cut the sod for a major upgrade to the 60-year-old Catholic facility. The project was ambitious: a $14-million transformation aimed at revolutionizing healthcare delivery in the region.
By 2022, construction had reached a promising 60 percent completion rate. But following a change in leadership at the GNPC, the momentum came to a screeching halt.
Today, weeds and neglect have swallowed the site, and residents of the Ellembelle district are left with nothing but unanswered questions.
Nicholas Kenya, the former Assembly Member for the Kristan and Eikwe Electoral Area, recounted the project’s abrupt abandonment.
“It was started during the NPP era. After working for some time, they stopped, complaining about a lack of funds to continue. Then, after the general elections, they never came back,” he lamented.
Another resident, Emmanuel Donkor, emphasized the strategic importance of the facility to the coastal community.
“In this coastal area, Eikwe is the largest community, largely due to its hospital. We are appealing to the government to consider that people cannot always afford to travel all the way to Effiakwanta Hospital or the 37 Military Hospital for healthcare. If we have the necessary facilities here, they can serve the same purpose. We therefore humbly plead with the government to come to our aid,” he appealed.
The Ellembelle District Chief Executive, Joseph Agyekum, has confirmed that the Assembly is actively pursuing answers. According to him, both he and the Member of Parliament for the area, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, have officially written to the GNPC to demand an explanation.
“This project, which commenced in 2020, has remained stalled for the past four years. In 2021, during the second term of President Nana Addo, the then board chairman and CEO handed over to new leadership. Following this transition, the project stalled and was neglected,” the DCE explained.
He, however, offered a glimmer of hope, stating that the GNPC CEO has assured them of a resolution in the coming weeks.
“The GNPC CEO has assured us that they will attend to the hospital in the coming weeks. I am also informed that they are currently conducting a minor forensic audit of the project,” he added.
The DCE further revealed that the stalled polyclinic is not an isolated case. Several other GNPC-initiated projects in the area have suffered a similar fate, and he is urging the company to expedite its promised forensic audit so that work can finally resume.
“There is another stalled project at Nkroful Agric Senior High School a girls’ dormitory which was also started in 2020 but has since stalled. Furthermore, in many of our communities, people assumed that the town roads and all related projects were being handled by Ghana Gas. In fact, they are managed by both Ghana Gas and GNPC.
Most of the town roads, which were initiated in 2015 by Mr Buah as part of the Gas and Oil Enclave Roads project, were also started by GNPC in 2020 but have now been halted,” the DCE stated.
“We have formally written to GNPC regarding these projects to find out why they have been abandoned, and we urge them to ensure that construction resumes as soon as possible,” he added.
As the community of Eikwe waits with bated breath, all eyes are now on the GNPC to see whether the promised forensic audit will translate into tangible action or if these idle projects will remain a testament to broken promises for yet another year.
By Ebenezer Atiemo
