Date: 2019-03-18

The Methodist Church of Nigeria has said it will take actions towards reclaiming the General Hospital, Afon in the Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State, which the state government took over from the church about forty years ago.

Rt. Reverend Simeon Onaleke disclosed this on Sunday during his enthronement as the seventh bishop of Kwara Diocese at the Cathedral of Blessings, Taiwo Road, Ilorin.

Onaleke, while speaking on the theme, 'Arise, let us rebuild,' decried the deplorable state of the hospital and stressed the need to rebuild some decayed facilities.

The bishop said, "The hospital was built by the church; rather than build their own, government took over schools and hospitals built by the missionary. Well, if you take it and you maintain it and the people benefit from it, no one will frown on it. But in our own case and the case of the General Hospital at Afon, it has been taken over by the government and if you go there now, it is in a deplorable state; government has not been there to turn the place around. So, they should give it back to us; we will know what to do with it.

"We are going to start negotiation with the government so that we can take back the hospital. We will rebuild the infrastructure so that it will provide services to the generality of the people; generate employment for our youths and be a source of revenue to the church," he said.

Bishop Onaleke succeeds Archbishop Obafemi Adeleye who is now the Bishop of Lagos Diocese of Methodist Church, Nigeria.