The management of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, Abuja, has provided additional details on the death of Abuja-based singer Ifunanya Nwangene, popularly known as Nanyah, who died after sustaining a snakebite.
Saad Ahmed, the chief medical director of the hospital, said the facility was unable to save the 26-year-old because she presented late for urgent medical attention after the incident.
Nwangene reportedly suffered the snakebite at her residence before being taken to the hospital, where she later died.
Her death triggered widespread outrage on social media and reignited public debate about the state of Nigeria’s emergency healthcare response.
Ahmed spoke on Saturday while appearing on the sidelines of the Senate Committee on Health’s 2026 budget defence session.
According to the CMD, the singer arrived at FMC more than two hours after the bite, at a point when the venom had already caused extensive systemic damage.
He also refuted claims circulating on social media that anti-venom was not administered to the victim upon arrival.
“First, I want to extend my condolences to the family and friends of the deceased, but I would say this is a case of a cobra,” he said.
“Cobra is the most poisonous snake that we know, and time is of essence from when one gets bitten and then to access that care.
“She presented to our hospital over two hours after she was bitten by that cobra, and by that time, she had already started manifesting with some systemic envenomation.
“And contrary to what we see in social media, that we didn’t have a snake venom, two doses were promptly given.
“First dose was given, where the infusion, after that one, another dose was given.
“So she had two doses of snake venom, but of course, the venom had already gone systemic, and we all know the cobra being highly poisonous.
“If she had presented probably much earlier, within 10 to 15 minutes, usually that’s when anti-venoms become most effective, but she came over two hours after the deadly incident.”
Ahmed described the tragedy as a wake-up call for healthcare facilities that may be ill-equipped to handle similar emergencies.
“But for FMC Abuja, we had anti-snake venom, all stocked, and our emergency services are top-notch, and our staff were fully on ground,” he said.
The CMD also expressed support for calls to expand the centralised housemanship system to include state and private hospitals.
According to him, such expansion would help address the shortage of housemanship placements in federal tertiary institutions.
“Housemanship is a period where young graduates in medicine go and learn hands-on before they can now go for their NYSC,” he said.
“So the federal hospitals, yes, almost all the federal tertiary hospitals are actually doing housemanship, but then the quota allocated is not enough.
“It’s not like a classroom where you come to me and say I’m giving you 200; it has to be based on the number of beds, specialists, and facilities available.
“So I think if the state government can key into this centralised system, it’s going to help a great deal.
“So I think when we have all this centralised, it’s going to help; what the registrar of the Medical and Dental Council presented yesterday will just be history.”
FMC had earlier dismissed allegations that negligence on the part of the hospital contributed to the singer’s death.
Following Nwangene’s death on February 3, the Senate urged the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and state governments to establish coordinated emergency referral and response systems linking public and private hospitals to improve access to life-saving care during medical emergencies.