State House Permanent Secretary, Jalal Arabi has openly replied the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha who criticized the management of the Aso Rock Clinic  over the deplorable state of facilities at the hospital.

In a statement released on Sunday, Arabi claimed the centre had been giving free medical services over the years and debunked allegations that the hospital had received N11.01 billion as appropriation for the period of 2015 – 2017.

He explained that out of the total capital appropriation of N2,941,062,04400 and recurrent appropriation of N465,935,358.00, only the sum of N969,681,821.53 (representing 32.97% for capital expenditure and N225,575,200.60 (representing 48.41%) for recurrent expenditure were actually released during the period under reference.

He said despite the shortfall between budgetary provisions and actual releases, the centre continued to render execute projects and provide free medical services to the over 10,000 registered patients including officials of the presidency and other government parastatals.

“Considering the unrestricted patronage base and free services of the State House Medical Centre, coupled with the funding hiccups and periodic receipts, it may not be far – fetched to notice gaps between demand and supply of medical equipment and consumables at certain stages of the budget circle,” Arabi said.

Last week, wife of the President, Aisha Buhari had during a stakeholders meeting lampooned the clinic’s management over the poor and embarrassing state of its facilities which she attributed to the rot in the system which has given rise to recent agitations across the country.