3 Patients Die At Hospital As Electricity Company Cuts Power Over Debt
Three patients at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) have died following the disconnection of electricity supply to the hospital by the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO).
The hospital’s Chief Information Officer, Hauwa Inuwa Dutse, who confirmed the deaths on Monday claimed that KEDCO disconnected the facility over an outstanding debt of N949.88 million as of the end of August.
In a statement, the company’s Head of Corporate Communications, Mr. Sani Bala, said the hospital is also expected to settle its August bill of N108.95 million in full within 10 working days or risk further sanctions.
Hauwa explained that the blackout had a direct impact on patients on life-support machines.
“On that very day, Friday, there were four patients on admission, and due to the power outage, three of them died,” she said.
The development has triggered public outrage, with many Nigerians blaming the tragedy on what they described as an avoidable disconnection.
However, KEDCO denied the allegations, noting that the hospital was only trying to blackmail the electricity distribution company.
“The hospital is just trying to blackmail us as light had already been restored even before their outburst,” said Sani Bala Sani, KEDCO’s Head of Corporate Communications.
He explained that the crisis stemmed from an ongoing effort to separate AKTH’s main hospital facilities from its staff residential quarters to guarantee uninterrupted power to critical medical services.
According to him, the hospital’s main campus is connected to the 33kV Zaria Road feeder, classified as Band A, which delivers an average of 22 hours of electricity daily.
However, he alleged that AKTH management had insisted that staff residences remain on the same feeder as the hospital, a situation that he said undermined supply stability.
“This led to a severe fault which caused the recent outage we had consistently sought to prevent,” he said.
KEDCO further alleged that the staff residential quarters had not been paying electricity bills, contributing significantly to the hospital’s growing liabilities.
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
