The University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital has cried out that there was no truth in the allegations alleging that several babies at the Special Care Baby Unit have died due to a power outage in the hospital. The Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee -CMAC U.P.T.H, Professor Lucky Onotai, has reported that no newborns had died at the hospital’s Baby Unit as he disclosed that the incubator at the Neo-natal unit of the hospital was powered off due to a power outage.
Professor Onotai added that although there was a power challenge, they had a backup generator that the hospital worked with. Power outage is no new phenomenon in Nigeria as several people have grown used to the interrupted power supply in the area. The Nigeria National grid had been on the news for collapsing more than four times since the year began, leading to power outages across the country.
Nigeria generates about 8,000 Mega Watts of electricity on average but officials have blamed the constant power outages in the country on terrorist activities that destroy power infrastructures. Nigerians experienced their first 2022 blackout across the nation when the national grid collapsed on 12 June.