In letter to Buhari, Kwankwaso tackles Gov Ganduje on mystery deaths in Kano

Former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, has challenged Governor Umar Ganduje’s claims that the mystery deaths in the State, especially among some prominent citizens and the elderly, were not related to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Among other issues, Kwankwaso alleged that a resort to ‘self-help’ in the absence of properly constituted COVID-19 test centres, was largely responsible for the deaths of senior citizens in the state.

A copy of his letter was posted on his Twitter handle.

He claimed that the mainly community transmission and subsequent deaths must have occurred through persons who were positive but unaware.

His letter read in part, “Permit me, Mr. President, to draw your attention to the spike in mystery deaths among the aged population in Kano State in the last couple of weeks. Hundreds of funerals have been recorded in all the cemeteries of the eight metropolitan local governments alone.

“Looking at the pattern elsewhere in the world where senior citizens with preexisting conditions were the main fatalities of the novel coronavirus, we are concerned that the inability to conduct tests in the state to determine the status of these senior citizens might be responsible for their death.

“We are even more concerned that if sincere and efficient machinery is not urgently put in place to understand and mitigate against this, more lives of innocent senior citizens will be lost.

“I should inform Mr. President that since the announcement of the positive results of the members of the committee, no test was ever conducted in the entire state again. This is very frightening as neither asymptomatic nor active cases are being identified and isolated, as such carriers of this dreaded virus are all about and spreading it and causing the untimely death of especially our senior citizens.”

To end the rising health challenge in Kano, Kwankwaso recommended that “the State Government should be made to constitute a proper State Taskforce on COVID-19 with members selected base on their professionalism and competence.

“At least five additional test centres should be established with 10 other sample collection centres across the State.

READ ALSO: COVID-19 ADDRESS: Highlights of Buhari’s plan to restart the economy

“An independent Federal Government team of experts should be mandated to investigate the rise in cases of death in the elderly population across the State.”

Bashir Ahmad, a Personal Assistant to the President, has since responded to Kwankwaso’s allegation accusing him of playing politics with COVID-19.

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