By AbdulRaheem Aodu
Kaduna
To honour late Kaduna state Governor, Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Governor Nasir el-Rufai has named the General Hospital, Kafanchan, after him.
A statement issued by his spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said the General Hospital, Kafanchan, had been renamed the Patrick Yakowa Hospital following the state Executive Council decision to honour him.
It read in part: “The Kaduna State Executive Council has approved the renaming of the Kafanchan General Hospital. The hospital will henceforth be known as Patrick Yakowa Hospital. This in honour of the service rendered to the state by the late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa.
“Governor Yakowa capped a distinguished career in public service with the two highest political offices in Kaduna state. He was Deputy Governor and then Governor, before his unfortunate demise in an helicopter crash.
“The general hospitals in the major cities in Kaduna State are named in honour of citizens who had made notable contributions to the state. The general hospital in Zaria bears the name of Hajiya Gambo Sawaba, an activist who fought for Nigeria’s independence.”
Continuing, it said: “The eminent name of Dr. Barau Dikko, the first medical doctor from Northern Nigeria and first president of the Northern Peoples Congress, graces the hospital in Kaduna that was recently accredited as a teaching hospital. General hospitals in Kaduna are also named after the revered late Chief of Kagoro, Gwamna Awan, and Alhaji Yusuf Dantsoho, a respected public servant.
“The only exception to this naming trend among the general hospitals in the major cities of Kaduna, Kafanchan and Zaria is the one in Kafanchan. That has now been remedied by the action of the Kaduna state Executive Council.”
Yakowa died in December 2012 in a plane crash in Bayelsa state.
