The Kogi State House of Assembly has ordered a comprehensive investigation into the alleged critical shortage of medical oxygen at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, following the tragic death of a prominent indigene, Engineer Hassan Musa.
The resolution of the state legislature followed a motion of urgent public importance moved during plenary on Wednesday by the member representing Ankpa I State Constituency, Hon. Lawal Akus, who detailed the distressing events surrounding the victim’s death.
Akus informed the Assembly that the late Musa was admitted to the hospital’s Emergency Unit on Sunday, November 1, 2026, suffering from acute respiratory distress, before being transferred to the ICU later that night. The lawmaker alleged that despite the patient’s critical need for emergency oxygen to stabilise his breathing, the essential medical supply was completely unavailable at the ICU.
The state lawmaker further revealed that desperate family members of the deceased attempted to source medical oxygen from a private supplier in the Felele area of Lokoja, but their efforts yielded no results before Musa succumbed to his condition on the morning of Monday, November 2.
Describing the absence of basic life support equipment in a tertiary healthcare facility as a matter of grave public concern, Akus questioned the management’s preparedness for medical emergencies, emphasizing that government-funded hospitals generating internal revenue must never lack basic consumables.
Contributions from lawmakers underlined growing discontent with emergency care management across state-owned health facilities. Supporting the motion, the member representing Lokoja I State Constituency, Hon. Bin Ebaiya Shehu-Tijani, described the incident as unacceptable and recounted a previous encounter alongside Hon. Jibril Abu where road accident victims were initially denied emergency admission due to a shortage of hospital beds, requiring the direct intervention of the Chief Medical Director.
Adding his voice to the debate, Hon. Jibril Abu representing Ajaokuta State Constituency insisted that medical oxygen remains an indispensable life-saving resource that should never be depleted in a specialist hospital, calling for an unsparing audit of emergency health services across the state.
Presiding over the plenary, the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aliyu Umar Yusuf, expressed profound concern over repeated allegations of medical negligence and systemic failure within public healthcare institutions. The Speaker declared that the legislature would determine whether Musa’s death was directly linked to institutional failure, oxygen stockout, or clinical negligence.
The House subsequently resolved to summon the Commissioner for Health alongside the Chief Medical Director of the Kogi State Specialist Hospital, Lokoja, to appear before the House Standing Committee on Health and Social Services.
The investigative panel has been mandated to scrutinize the hospital’s procurement, supply, storage, and inventory records for medical oxygen, evaluate clinical response protocols, and recommend systemic reforms to prevent future loss of lives.
