The Senate president, Godswill Akpabio has called on the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to ensure the procurement and nationwide availability of antivenoms in public and private hospitals.
The charge was given during plenary deliberations following growing concerns over preventable d3aths linked to the absence of life-saving antidotes in health facilities, especially in high-risk regions across the country.
According to Senator Akpabio, Nigeria must urgently strengthen its emergency healthcare response to prevent avoidable fatalities.
He called on “The Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, must ensure procurement, quality assurance, proper storage, and nationwide availability of safe, effective, and affordable anti-venoms and critical antidotes for use in public and private hospitals, with priority attention to high-risk regions,” he stated.
The resolution followed the consideration of a motion sponsored by Senator Adebule Idiat Oluranti (APC, Lagos West), which drew attention to the urgent need for federal and state governments to guarantee adequate stocking, availability, and access to life-saving antidotes and emergency medicines nationwide.
While presenting the motion, Idiat, a former Lagos State Deputy Governor, noted that Nigeria continues to witness a rise in medical emergencies, including snakebites, scorpion stings, poisoning, drug overdoses, and other forms of envenomation.
The controversy began with the tragic death of Abuja, a 26-year-old rising singer, Ifunanya Lucy Nwangene, known professionally as Nanyah, was bitten by a snake inside her home on January 31, 2026.
According to reports, friends and members of her choir said she was asleep in her residence in the Lugbe area of Abuja when a venomous snake bit her on the wrist.
After the bite, she immediately sought urgent medical help. First, she went to a nearby private hospital in Lugbe, which reportedly did not have the antivenom needed to treat snakebites.
She was then rushed to the Federal Medical Centre in Abuja, where medical staff attended to her, but it was allegedly stated that they only had one of the two doses of antivenom believed necessary for her survival.
After her d3ath, professional snake handlers found multiple snakes in her residence, including the cobra believed to have caused the fatal bite.
The FMC rejected claims it lacked antivenom or was negligent in treatment; they stated that its staff attended to Nwangene immediately when she arrived and provided emergency care, including fluids, oxygen and snake antivenom.
They said she had already developed severe complications from the snake bite, and her condition suddenly worsened just before doctors were moving her to intensive care, and that efforts to revive her were unsuccessful.
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