Patients on life support machines at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) died after a sudden power cut by Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO).
Although there was no specific number of patients said to have died, the management of the hospital claimed it had lost some patients in the facility in the last 24 hours since the electricity distribution company had thrown the entire hospital into total darkness.

Spokesperson of the Federal government-owned teaching hospital, Hauwa Inuwa Dutse, in a statement on Sunday, the management lamented that the disconnection of the facility from power supply has exposed patients on life support machines to unwarranted risk.

According to Dutse, “the hospital regularly pays electricity bills to KEDCO from Internally Generated Revenue, and also uses part of such revenue to procure diesel for on-site power generation to augment the electricity supplied by KEDCO.

“However, the management was saddened by the death of some patients in critical care after KEDCO abruptly disconnected the entire hospital from electricity supply over pending electricity bills, which the hospital is earnestly working to settle.

“The Management of the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) has appealed to Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) to reconnect the hospital to electricity supply to avert further loss of lives of patients on critical life support equipment.”

Reacting to the development, spokesperson of KEDCO, Sani Bala, insisted the distribution company was compelled to carry out total disconnection of supply after the hospital refused access to its staff quarters.

“It is true there was a disconnection at AKTH due to a backlog of pending bills the hospital is yet to settle. But the way and manner in which the case is being reported by the hospital suggested an attempted blackmail, which is not necessary.

“What actually happened was, our men did not intend to disconnect the hospital area because we understand the essence and essential services being rendered in the hospital.

“Our intention was to disconnect the supply at the staff quarters, where we had noticed excessive wastage and huge losses recorded. But our men were prevented from carrying out the action, leaving them with no option but to disconnect the entire supply.”

KEDCO accused the hospital management of poor response to payment of its electricity bills, which has accumulated to billions of naira