A medical negligence suit tied to the death of a Kano woman during a corrective surgery to remove surgical scissors allegedly left inside her body has been stalled once again, after government lawyers failed to appear in court and the defendants missed the deadline for filing their defence.

The Kano State High Court, sitting on Miller Road, adjourned the case until November 13, 2026, following the resumed hearing. The suit centres on the death of Aisha Umar, who died in September 2025 while undergoing a corrective operation to remove a pair of scissors that had allegedly been left inside her abdomen during an earlier surgical procedure at the Abubakar Imam Urology Centre.

At the resumed hearing, counsel to the plaintiff, Barrister Faiza Yunusa Yusuf, expressed visible frustration over the repeated delays plaguing the case. She explained that the defendants had neither filed their statement of defence nor appeared in court to represent their position, despite the matter having been pending for an extended period. According to Yusuf, under the Kano State High Court's Civil Procedure Rules, the statutory window allowed for filing a defence had already expired by the time of the hearing, leaving the court with little option but to adjourn the matter to allow the plaintiff to proceed with proving her case independently.

For the family of the deceased, the continued delays have become a source of deep frustration. Aisha Umar's husband, Abubakar Muhammad, voiced his disappointment with what he described as the state government's lack of urgency in addressing the matter. He noted that a state-appointed investigative committee had been established as far back as January to look into the circumstances surrounding his wife's death, yet the panel's findings had still not been made public months later, leaving him without clarity on why the government appeared to be dragging its feet.

The case has drawn wider attention beyond the courtroom, having previously been cited as emblematic of broader concerns about medical negligence and accountability within Nigeria's healthcare sector. Separately, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has referenced incidents similar to Umar's case in recent public commentary on healthcare accountability, following an April 2026 Federal High Court ruling that affirmed the commission's authority to investigate medical negligence complaints โ€” a development consumer rights advocates have described as a significant step toward strengthening oversight of Nigeria's healthcare providers.

With the matter now pushed to November, the burden falls on the plaintiff's legal team to advance proof of the case in the continued absence of a formal defence from the urology centre or representation from government lawyers. For Umar's family, the extended wait adds yet another layer of hardship to an already painful loss, as they continue pressing for both accountability from the facility involved and transparency from a state government whose own investigative findings remain unreleased nearly a year after her death.