By Ogar Monday Follow @ogar_monday
The Cross River State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Inyang Asibong has been announced as the winner of the CrossRiverWatch 2017 Man of The Year award.
This was contained in a statement issued by CRWatch Resources; publishers of the online news portal; CrossRiverWatch on Thursday where it stated that Mrs. Archibong had polled the highest number of votes to clinch the maiden edition of the award.
The statement jointly signed by the Publisher, Mr. Agba Jalingo and Mr. Charles Kalu said that the number of votes cast in the second round of voting reduced drastically following the migration of the voting system to a new platform after attempts were made to rig the first round of voting.
“The Commissioner for Health in Cross River State, Dr. Inyang Asibong is the maiden CrossRiverWatch Man of The Year.
“Asibong polled a total of 1503 votes representing 97 percent of the total votes cast at the close of the process on Wednesday night after two weeks of voting.
“She pipped four other contenders including; the Executive Secretary of the State Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Stephen Odey who polled 17 votes; the Director General of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Betta Edu who polled 9 votes; legal and child rights activist, Barrister James Ibor who polled 8 votes and federal legislator representing Obudu/Obanliku/Bekwarra federal constituency, Mr. Legor Idagbo who polled 3 votes.”
An earlier statement had said that Mrs. Asibong as the leader of the state health team, “Has positioned the health sector as the most performing MDA in the Ayade administration.
“In 2017, under a Public Private Partnership arrangement, the 4 general hospitals in the state were resuscitated, re-equipped and services are being rendered there now.
“Several free medical outreaches by the ministry saw over 300 persons get free surgeries for varying ailments.
“She and the state health team were also exemplary and proactive in the management of the outbreak of Lassa fever and monkey pox in the state.
“She Commissioned the VVF center at Ikom and the ministry has since facilitated the repair and reintegration of over 300 VVF patients across the state free of any charges.
“There has also been aggressive campaign against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), and regaining of accreditation for 3 schools of nursing in the state after meeting the standards of the supervision committee.
“The Ministry also opened adolescent friendly centers as well as rape and drugs enlightenment centers in General Hospitals and TB diagnosis and treatment centers across the 18 Local Government Areas of the State.”
On the platform of voting which was migrated to the CrossRiverWatch Bot on Telegram, the statement said that this was in response to “efforts by some elements to rig the process. It will be recalled that over one thousand votes were classified as ‘dummy votes’ in the first round.
“The editorial board deemed it wise to migrate the voting system from the old platform to a more secured platform which can be independently verified by all participating in the voting process; the CrossRiverWatch Bot on Telegram which served as the platform is an artificial media network bot developed by our partners and served effectively, the purpose for which it was programmed for – ensuring only vote per user.
“As earlier announced, the award will be presented to the winner at a date to be announced later as well as other prizes,” the statement added.