The Kano state government has begun the return of almajiris
to their hometowns, as a part of efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the
state.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Abdullahi
Ganduje, governor of Kano, disclosed the development on Sunday when he received
a situation report from the state’s task force and COVID-19 fundraising
committee at the government house in Kano.
Ganduje said the state government had set up a high-powered
almajiri committee under the leadership of Murtala Garo, commissioner for local
government.
“We closed all schools in the state to curb the spread of
the pandemic but we found out that existence of almajiri schools is
constituting a stumbling block,” he said.
“We have complete records of all almajiris and their schools
in Kano. So far, over 2,000 almajiris had gone back to their states.”
He said the state government had designed a programme where
three categories of almajiris would be taken care of, adding that the first
category from neighbouring states of Bauchi, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna and Niger
Republic would be evacuated to their states.
The second category of almajiris, who were indigenes, would
be enrolled into their neighbourhood conventional schools.
He warned that the state government would charge parents who
resisted the initiative to court.
“For the third category who are sleeping on the streets,
markets and under the bridge, we will take them to our boarding schools where
we will provide them with uniforms and feeding,” he added.
Ganduje said with the help of traditional rulers, the
government had identified the poorest of the poor for distribution of
palliatives, and noted that food items would be distributed to 50,000
households based on the collection so far.
“Each household will receive 25kg bag of rice, semovita or
dawavita, one carton of spaghetti or macaroni or indomie; one four-litre gallon
of vegetable oil and N2,000 cash,” he said.
The governor also appealed to the federal government for
additional testing centres, palliative and protective kits.
One week after recording its index case on April 11, 2020,
Kano now has a total of 36 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Although the NCDC earlier confirmed 37 cases for the state,
one patient was transferred to his hometown in Jigawa by the Kano authorities,
who said the patient was on his way to Jigawa when he was intercepted and
tested.
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