Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the total lockdown of Kano state for two weeks in a bid to curtail the spread of coronavirus in the state. As of April 26, Kano has confirmed 77 cases. “With regards to Kano, I have directed the enforcement of a total lockdown for a period of two weeks effective immediately. The Federal Government shall deploy all the necessary human, material and technical resources to support the State in controlling and containing the pandemic and preventing the risk of further spread to neighboring States,” he said.
He also promised to give support to the Kano state government to be able to win the war against the pandemic. He made the promise in a national broadcast on Monday, stressing the resolve of the FG to deploy all necessary machineries to enable the state contain the pandemic. He said, “The Federal Government shall deploy all the necessary human, material and technical resources to support the State in controlling and containing the pandemic”. While easing the lockdown imposed on Lagos, Ogun and the FCT effective from May 4, the president said the total lockdown in Kano will be or two weeks, starting from today.
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had earlier in the day decried the alleged neglect of the state by the federal Task Force Committee on COVID-19 despite the intensity of the situation in the state. Residents of Kano State were thrown into deep shock after another wave of mass deaths on Saturday claimed the lives of a number of prominent personalities.
Very early in the morning of Saturday, graveyards across the state were streaming with groups of bereaved families, friends and relatives who went to bury their dead, a situation that is fast becoming a daily routine in the city, which has recently been hit by a “strange ailment.” The state has seen a spike in deaths from the sickness, which residents likened to severe malaria and typhoid.
On Tuesday, it reported in the Media that over 150 had been buried in three days at three cemeteries in the state. But the state government denied there was a mass death and promised to investigate. Interviews with grave diggers and undertakers in the state have, however, continued to paint a disturbing picture about a series of burials taking place at cemeteries across the ancient city, with combined funeral prayers being held “because of the numbers.
” Some of the personalities that were buried yesterday include the proprietor and Chief Executive Officer of Hassan Gwarzo Secondary School and former chairman of the National Economic Intelligence Committee (NEIC) during the Obasanjo administration from 1999 to 2003; former Grand Khadi of the state, Alhaji Dahiru Rabi’u; former Executive Secretary, State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), Alhaji Adamu Isyaku Dal; head of North-West 1 zone of First Bank, Abdullahi Lawan; former Triumph newspapers editor, Malam Musa Tijjani; Professor Aliyu Dikko of Physiology Department, Bayero University Kano, Alhaji Garba Dambatta; a younger brother to the late Alhaji Magaji Dambatta and the mother of famous Kannywood artist, Ado Gwanja, among many others.
