Old Naira Note: How Kano Man Lost Pregnant Wife in Hospital

A Kano State-based man, identified as Malam Bello Fancy, has narrated how he lost his pregnant wife at the Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital in Kano, the state capital after the hospital allegedly refused to accept the old Naira notes he brought.

According to Fancy, his wife, Shema’u Sani Labaran, died as a result of delay in the transfer made to the bank account of the hospital after it refused to accept payment with the old Naira notes.

The bereaved man who spoke to Freedom Radio about the incident lamented that doctors in the hospital did not attend to his wife for more than three hours.

Malam Fancy said he took his pregnant wife to the hospital when she was about to deliver but the hospital rejected his old naira notes.

Meanwhile, it had no POS machine for him to make payments with his debit card. Hence, the hospital asked him to transfer the money into their account which had did, he was thereafter debited but the doctors on duty didn’t touch his wife as they insisted they must confirm the receipt of the money through an alert in their account. Unfortunately, it took almost three hours for the transaction alert to reflect.

Malam Fancy was quoted as saying, “My wife walked into the hospital from our house, but before they received the alert, the pains had doubled and she was already bleeding. Still, they didn’t touch her until after three hours when they received the alert.

“After they admitted her, they discovered that she could not deliver by herself; that she must undergo an operation. I agreed and paid the money; still through transfer. It also delayed for an additional three hours before they received the alert and operated on my wife. Shockingly, the baby was brought out dead and the mother also died.”

But it was gathered that the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Rahila Garba, denied the allegation.

However, other patients in the hospital reportedly confirmed the incident, saying they also encountered problems with the payment of hospital bills which delayed services.

The spokesperson of the state’s Hospital Management Board, Malam Ibrahim Abdullahi, said that they received information about the incident and that they would commence an investigation into it.

Abdullahi said,

“We are not certain about the cause of the incident, we just got the information. But we have commenced an investigation into the matter.”