A 25-year-old pregnant woman, Justina Matthew Obande, died after being taken to Stevans Hospital in Ikorodu, Lagos, in the early hours of January 24, with her husband alleging that delays and inadequate emergency treatment contributed to her death.
However, the Managing Director of Stevans Hospital, Dr. Hycient Obasi, has disputed key elements of the husband’s account, saying Justina had a history of severe high blood pressure and arrived at the hospital bleeding during an emergency.
Justina, according to her husband, Friday Obande, was enrolled at Stevans Hospital for antenatal care under Ilera Eko, the Lagos State Government’s health insurance programme for its workers and their families.
Obande, an ambulance driver at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), said he chose the facility because it was closer to their home in Ikorodu.
“When I started working here at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), they registered us for a programme called Ilera Eko, which is like an HMO for those working with the Lagos State Government.
“My wife, Justina Matthew Obande, was registered as a pregnant woman at Stevans Hospital in Ikorodu, at Agric, Ori-Okuta, Ikorodu.
“I followed her like two or three times. They would only check her BP, give her some drugs like folic acid and some other drugs.
“The only thing I noticed was that they would check her BP and ask her to go and do a scan. They only asked her to do a scan once. I think that was when the pregnancy was four months.
“They did not ask her to do anything more than the scan she had done. She had been going there as they always gave her appointments.”
Obande said his wife had appeared healthy throughout the pregnancy and had not complained to him of any significant illness.
“Since I have known her, she has never for one day told me that she was feeling dizzy or anything. She was always strong.
“If you are going to work, you can go to her workplace and make enquiries. Go and ask them, ‘This lady that died, has she complained of one thing, one sickness?’ I can give you the numbers of her friends. Call them and ask them, ‘Has Justina complained of any illness?’ They will tell you no.
“She was very active. You would think she had given birth before. She was very strong.”
The Fateful Night Justina Died
Obande said his wife returned from work on January 24 before developing a severe cough and subsequently bleeding.
“She came back from work at Jendor Odonguyan, where she worked as a baker. She was on night duty, which started at 2 and closed by 9.
“Everything was fine until around 1am when she started coughing seriously. I took her to the bathroom and poured water on her.
“When she stood up from the water closet where she sat, I discovered a stain of blood on it. I did not tell her anything. I just took her inside to sit on the bed that was in the parlour.
“I asked her if she wished to go to the hospital. She said, ‘Yes, let’s go to the hospital.’ I then woke my neighbour, who helped me take her to the hospital.
“She even walked inside the car by herself in the compound and, when we got to the hospital, she walked inside by herself and sat down.”
According to Obande, there was a delay before his wife was attended to.
“When we got to Stevans Hospital, it took 10 to 15 minutes before the security guard opened the gate to the hospital. When we got inside, she sat down for 30 minutes.
“The nurses were all asleep. That was around 2 in the morning. I had to wake them up that there was an emergency.
“Despite being familiar with her because she had been attending that same place, they took time before attending to her, saying they wanted to confirm her name first.
“This is someone who came for an emergency and had been attending the hospital. She even gave the receptionist there a cake for her birthday to please her.
“Despite my pleas, they were shouting that I couldn’t teach them their job.”
He said staff struggled to locate his wife’s records.
“Before searching for her name, I was telling them her name was Obande Justina, but they could not even spell Obande.
“The lady said I was teaching her her job and, in annoyance, I had to take the keyboard to type her name.”
Obande alleged that his wife continued bleeding while waiting for treatment.
“When her name was eventually found, another case was looking for a doctor. At last, a very young doctor came.
“He called a junior nurse to check her BP, which was high, and that was all.
“No injection, no drip. The doctor had to tell the nurse to go and recheck the BP again before the nurse was asked to give her medication.
“Then they placed Justina on a stretcher. I was the one who carried her onto the stretcher.
“This was going to an hour without any treatment and she was still bleeding while lying down.
“At home, the bleeding was a stain, but at the hospital, it was flowing endlessly.”
There Was no Oxygen Available
Obande, who said his work as an ambulance driver at LASUTH had given him experience of hospital emergencies, alleged that his wife’s condition deteriorated while she was at Stevans.
“There was no oxygen at the hospital. I couldn’t see anything and she was already getting weak.
“I asked Justina, ‘Can you open your eyes?’ She opened her eyes.
“I work in the hospital. I was telling them, ‘I work in the hospital. I know all these things. I go to different work. I go to emergency. There is nothing new that I’m not seeing.'”
He said he attempted to contact a gynaecologist for assistance.
“I had to call the gynaecologist. As a doctor, I called the gynaecologist. I said, ‘Please talk to this doctor so they will know what to do.’
“The doctor refused to pick up the phone for me.
“I even went outside to make different calls.”
Obande also alleged that the hospital’s owner was present but did not immediately intervene.
“By then, the main man, the owner of the hospital, drove in.
“The man that owns the hospital did not go and check the patients. They called you that there was an emergency. At least, as the owner of the hospital, you will have more experience. You should say, ‘Let me check the patients.’ The man did not go.”
According to Obande, he was eventually asked to sign consent for a Caesarean section.
“He went to change and told me that I should come and sign that they would do CS.
“Can you believe all those times that they were telling me to come and sign? The girl was already dead.
“But they chased me out. The girl died a painful death. She bled to death.”
Dispute Over Emergency Treatment
Obande alleged that the hospital did not have adequate emergency facilities.
“You own a hospital. Most people there are pregnant women. I did not see any oxygen.
“There is a room there. They wrote ‘oxygen room’ there. I did not see any oxygen.”
He also questioned the location of what he said was the hospital’s theatre.
“If you go to our hospital here, you will never see a theatre upstairs. Anywhere they are doing anything operational, you will never see upstairs. They do it downstairs.
“There is no slab. You can’t push a stretcher upstairs.
“Would you believe me and my neighbour are the ones that carried a pregnant woman who was bleeding with our hands?”
He said Justina was already unresponsive by that point.
“I know she was dead because if someone died, 10 people cannot carry the person. She had sweat. She was not moving. She was dead already, but they refused to tell me.
“We were dragging a person that could not even talk or do anything. We were busy carrying her upstairs.”
According to him, the incident left the clothes he and his neighbour wore that night soaked in blood.
“The cloth I wore that day, I swear with the God that made me, I could not wear it. I threw everything away because all the cloth was soaked with blood, including my neighbour’s.
“The man was putting on jalabiya. Everything was soaked with blood. There was nobody to even assist.”
Obande said he eventually realised that his wife had died before he was formally informed.
“When we got upstairs, I told them, ‘Should I go and bring baby twins?’ They said I should not go.
“When they said I should not go, I already knew that this girl was dead.
“They now told me that she was dead. I begged them to remove the baby. They said nothing, and the baby twins were dead.
“We were supposed to have her baby. She was supposed to give birth on February 19. But she died January 24.
“Her birthday was February 5, so she died before her birthday.
“She died without seeing her daughter. We got baby things, everything. I just packed everything to my mum’s house now.”
He said he was later given a death certificate which attributed the death to blood pressure.
“I still have the death certificate they gave me. It said it was BP.
“When I took the certificate to Ikorodu General Hospital, where we went to deposit her corpse, they told me that this thing that killed this girl should not have killed her. They said it was something they could manage.” He said.
Hospital’s account: High Blood Pressure and Emergency Admission
Dr. Hycient Obasi, Managing Director of Stevans Hospital, has disputed important parts of Obande’s account.
According to Dr. Obasi, Justina first presented at the hospital on October 27, 2025, with blood spotting.
The hospital described the episode as a threatened miscarriage and said a scan conducted at the time was satisfactory.
Dr. Obasi said Justina subsequently registered for antenatal care at Stevans Hospital on November 5, 2025.
The hospital’s account states that she was found to have high blood pressure during her antenatal care and was placed on medication.
Dr. Obasi also said the hospital had no record of an antenatal visit on the particular date alleged by Obande and that only one scan was documented during the pregnancy.
According to the doctor, Justina was brought to the hospital at night during the January 24 emergency while bleeding and was already taking medication for high blood pressure.
The hospital’s position is that she was not fit for surgery when she arrived and that there was less than one hour to manage the emergency.
Most significantly, Dr. Obasi said Justina’s final blood-pressure reading during the emergency was 205/218 mmHg which made an immediate surgery unadvisable at the time.
He also pushed back against the allegations of inadequate staffing noting there was always a Doctor on ground to attend to patients and the deceased was not an exception.
Husband Alleges Negligence
Obande maintains that the death resulted from what he described as a failure to provide appropriate emergency care.
“To me, what killed her is negligence of duty because of the doctor and the nurse.
“They were busy arguing about who would fix a line on the patient until she died. Nobody put a line. Common injection, nobody.
“For close to more than one hour, close to two hours that we were there before she died, nothing was placed. There was no drip, nothing.”
He alleged that the only medication administered was a blood-pressure tablet.
“The only thing they gave somebody that was weak was one small BP tablet to lick, which she put under her tongue.
“Somebody who is like this, who cannot even carry her hand, who cannot even open her eyes—you are putting a drug under her mouth. Why?”
Obande said he and his neighbour had offered to pay for treatment if cost was an issue.
“The man that followed me said, ‘If it is money, money is not a problem. You people are thinking that this is because it is Ilera Eko. Maybe Lagos State is not paying you well for Ilera Eko. That is why you are treating her like this.
“‘You people should do the needful. I will pay. I will raise the money. I will pay.’
“But what I am saying is only death here.”
Dispute Over Communication With Family
Obande also complained about the manner in which the family was informed about the death.
“Even when everything happened, it was the doctor that called the brother—the lady’s brother.
“When I called her sister and they came, they gave the doctor a number to call their brother to explain what happened.
“Is it the doctor that was supposed to call? It was the doctor that called them that the girl bled to death.
“Now they are fighting me that it was me. They are saying maybe I beat the girl, that maybe I was fighting with her, that I did something bad, or that I used her for money ritual.”
He said the accusations had compounded his grief.
“That is what I am facing now. The family are now on my neck, saying I used her for money ritual.
“Did I build a house? I don’t own a car. I am just a hustling guy that wants a good future for himself.”
Stevans Hospital Reviews
Separate from the allegations surrounding Justina’s death, Arbiterz looked into several reviews posted online by purported patients or users of Stevans with many of them complaining about delays, treatment, staffing and health-insurance claims.
A review by Azeezat Kasali alleged that the reviewer was charged almost N2.8 million for treatment of a fractured bone and complained about the hospital’s handling of the case.
“Collected almost 2.8m for my fractured bone last year and bring a doctor we can’t discuss [or] have access with because the M.D./doctor is a middleman instead of referring us to an orthopedic hospital,” the reviewer wrote.
The reviewer also alleged neglect and described the nurses as inexperienced, concluding: “Avoid this hospital at all cost.”
Another review, posted by Salamat Adebimpe, complained of delays and alleged that medication administered at the hospital did not correspond with the reviewer’s condition.
“They delay unnecessary, the medications they give do not tally with the predicament,” the reviewer wrote.
The reviewer also alleged that there was often no doctor available and that nurses failed to give patients adequate attention.
“No doctor on ground most times, nurses not giving attention to patients, why is it a hospital then?” she wrote.
A third review by Oluwabunmi Samuel complained about delays and professionalism.
“They just like to unnecessarily delay patients, very unprofessional and shabby people,” the reviewer wrote.
A fourth reviewer, Shosanya Ayomide, raised an allegation involving health insurance.
“I was there to use HMO in accessing care, the facility billed the HMO for medication and injection I was not given,” the reviewer alleged.
The reviewer said attempts to have the matter resolved were unsuccessful.
The reviews are independent online complaints and have not been independently verified. They do not establish medical negligence or prove that the allegations made by the reviewers are accurate.
They are nevertheless relevant background to the questions raised by Obande about delays, staffing and the treatment of patients at the facility.
Wider Legal Question About Medical Negligence
The allegations also come against the backdrop of a recent legal development concerning the regulation of healthcare services and the investigation of complaints involving medical providers.
The Federal High Court in Abuja Earlier in the year rejected a suit seeking to restrain the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) from investigating complaints relating to alleged medical negligence.
According to the FCCPC, the plaintiff had argued that the Commission lacked jurisdiction to investigate complaints bordering on medical negligence and could not act without first concluding a concurrent-jurisdiction arrangement with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
Justice Nwite rejected the claims and the court held that healthcare services fall within the category of services subject to consumer-protection oversight under the FCCPC Act.
It further held that where a complaint concerns consumer satisfaction, it may fall within the Commission’s consumer-protection mandate even where the sector is also professionally regulated.
The court distinguished between the professional regulation and discipline of medical practitioners, which remains the responsibility of relevant professional bodies, and consumer-protection oversight concerning the quality, fairness, standards and treatment received by healthcare consumers.
Justice Nwite also stressed Section 105 of the FCCPA, which provides for coordination among regulators, holding that the absence of a formal agreement with another regulator does not suspend powers expressly conferred on the FCCPC by statute.
The court further held that patient confidentiality does not override lawful statutory investigative powers exercised in the public interest and in accordance with due process.
The ruling means that complaints about healthcare services may potentially attract consumer-protection scrutiny in addition to professional or disciplinary processes available through medical regulators.
