OVER 2,374 Bayelsa State people have received free medical services for various ailments, courtesy of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). 
	
	
 A breakdown of the statistics of patients that benefited from the exercise showed that 106 received general surgeries, 20 had eye cataract operations, 260 got eye glasses, while 1, 988 others had general consultations. 
	
	
 Apart from Odi whose people topped the number of beneficiaries (they got 1, 733 out of 2, 374 persons treated), other councils which participated in the free health care are Kolokuma/Opukoma, 284 persons, Kaiama, 213 persons, among others. 
	
	
 Co-ordinator of the project, Mr Sean Nortman, told reporters that 52 volunteers from various fields in medicine help to make the project a reality. 
	
	
 "With the combined goal of providing free quality health care in this rural areas through the dispensing of prescribed drugs as well as undertaking surgeries that came to the medical site daily, we made it to give the patients we come in contact with health advice and education, hopefully to prevent further problems in the future," Nortman said. 
	
	
 In an interview with journalists later, NDDC Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Mr. Timi Alaibe, said that the choice of Odi was a deliberate policy to give the people of the area who are still recovering from the trauma of the 1999 sad incident a sense of belonging. 
	
	
 Alaibe said that the commission was genuinely determined to change the tide of things in Bayelsa and other NDDC states who have been long neglected over years. 
	
	
 Meanwhile, reports of investigation into the recent oil spillage that occurred in Umudike Ohaji Egbema council in Imo State which left eight persons dead and many others injured is ready. 
	
	
 The member representing the Ohaji Egbema Oguta Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives Tony Okere disclosed this on Wednesday while fielding questions from reporters in his constituency office. 
	
	
 He added that the report would be presented before the house as soon as it resumes sitting. 
	
	
 He said the compositions of the committee included representatives from the Directorate of Petroleum Resource of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), government, Shell and the host community to ensure justice and fairness, law to protect only one party" he said. 
	
	
 On the activities of the NDDC, Okere accused the commission of siting projects in non oil producing areas, warning that it might derail from its set objectives.