The destruction of the national grid along Damaturu-Maiduguri highway by Boko Haram insurgents on January 27, 2021, has continued to affect the services of healthcare delivery institutions in Borno State.
Although the Federal and Borno State government officials have been making frantic efforts to restore connections to areas still suffering blackout due to the destruction, some of the healthcare delivery institutions in Maiduguri are powered by diesel-consuming generators.
Break in the supply of diesel to these hospitals halts all services requiring electricity, aggravating the conditions of the patients. State officials are, however, yet to issue casualty figures following this development.
Governor Babagana Zulum of the state paid unannounced visits to two of such hospitals – Umaru Shehu Ultramodern Hospital and Ali Sheriff Maternity Hospital in Maiduguri, around 10pm od Friday, December 2, finding patients in darkness due to power failure that had lingered for a number of days.
Governor Zulum, after receiving hints of the development, went to see things for himself and confirmed patients were in darkness because there was lack of diesel supply to standby generators.
Zulum, confirmed that the generators were fully functional, but lacked diesel to power them.
“It is very unfortunate that no official either from the Hospital Management Board or the Ministry of Health drew my attention to this outage,” the governor said.
“If we can power our streetlights constantly, I see no reason why we cannot power our hospitals,” Zulum lamented as he consoled patients and their loved ones for being in darkness despite dealing with illnesses.
The governor, therefore, directed that available diesel meant to power generators at the Government House, Maiduguri, be immediately transferred by trucks to both hospitals, pending his meeting with officials of the state’s Ministry of Health the following day, to find sustainable solution.
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