COVID -19: Kano needs N15b support from FG – Ganduje

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

...Reports of 150 deaths are inaccurate – Gandoje

The Kano state government has said it needs about N15 billion support from the federal government to aid it’s  fight against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

The state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje said the money if given would be used in the procurement of
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and opening up of testing and isolation centers in the state.

Kano has so far recorded 73 confirmed cases of the virus one death case and no recovery case yet out of the 873 cases recorded in the country.

The governor said, “You can understand that Kano is the most populated state in the country hence the only testing centre at AKTH is not enough for us.”

The state is the second most populated state in the federation, in March President Muhammadu Buhari approved the release of N10 billion to Lagos and N5 billion to the NCDC to facilitate the fight against the spread of the pandemic.

Rivers state government had questioned the rationale for giving only Lagos state N10 billion without giving his state priority attention, he insisted that the federal government is politicising it’s  intervention of the novel coronavirus across the country.

On the burgeoning reports of mass deaths from COVID-19 in Kano, with such figures  as 150 being bandied  around, the governor said the reports are inaccurate, that investigation conducted by his government at some of the cemeteries cited in the reports, revealed that 13 people out of the figure had died from other ailments.

“That information is not correct because we undertook some survey and investigation (about the initial report of 70 deaths). We found out that it was only 13 deaths in that place and we will soon get a complete report but I assure you, that information is not correct,” he insists