Grace Effiong
The family of renowned soprano singer Ifunanya Nwangene, affectionately called Nanyah, has revealed harrowing details surrounding her unt!mely demise after a venomous snake attack, condemning systemic failures that cost her life.
Nanyah succumbed after being struck by a massive serpent in her residence, with relatives accusing nearby medical facilities of refusing treatment due to unavailability of life-saving anti-venom serum.
In an emotional BBC Pidgin interview, Blessing Oduche, Nanyah’s grieving sister-in-law, described a chain of heartbreaking oversights—from apathetic security personnel to critical hospital delays—that sealed the singer’s fate.
“This wasn’t some harmless garden snake—it was a monster. Yet while Ifunanya writhed in pain, people prioritized hunting the reptile over rushing her for care,” Blessing recounted, voice trembling.
She detailed how security staff in their Enugu housing complex disastrously misjudged the emergency, wasting golden minutes searching for the snake instead of evacuating the victim.
“Can you believe it? When they finally tried to drive her, the car wouldn’t start. Precious time kept slipping away as she weakened.”
Blessing revealed how the desperate singer, battling spreading paralysis, staggered nearly half a kilometer to reach transportation, only to face rejection at the first clinic.
“She dragged herself through that agony, clutching the bite, praying for help…just to be turned away. No anti-venom, they said. Like she was some stray animal.”
Records show Nanyah endured the lethal bite around dusk, yet reached FMC’s emergency ward only at nightfall—over ninety fateful minutes later—where doctors could merely confirm her passing.
