Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Tuesday broke ranks with his counterparts from the other 18 States of the Northern region, announcing a one week lockdown of Kano, effective from Thursday 16th April, by 10pm.
Global Upfront Newspaper (GUN) had earlier Tuesday reported that the Northern Governors Forum, after an online meeting presided over by their Chairman, Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, said in a statement that none of the 19 Northern States will effect a lockdown as a result of the rampaging Coronavirus (COVID-19).
It is not yet clear if Governor Ganduje was part of the online meeting of the Northern Governors.
But the Governor changed his position with the confirmation of a new case of COVID-19 in the State. With the new case, the number of confirmed patients in Kano State has risen to four.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Kano State, Abba Anwar, in announcing the new decision, said it was arrived “after intensive meetings with Clerics by the Chairman of the Kano State Task Force on COVID-19, Deputy Governor Dr Nasiru Yusur Gawuna, and other stakeholders, of which the recommendations were presented to the governor by the Sub-committee Secretary, Dr Ibrahim Mai Bushira, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje agrees to lockdown Kano for a period of 1 week, starting from Thursday 16th April, by 10pm.
“From Thursday 16th April by 10pm Kano is locked down for the benefit of all in the State. All markets are closed and all public gatherings are banned. The lockdown is for 7 days. We then wait and see what will come up. We are hoping that Allah will see us through.”
Mai Bushira, speaking on behalf of the larger group of Ulama, acknowledges that, “during our last meeting, the recommendations we gave earlier had nothing to do with closing of worship Centres, because we didn’t have any case of COVID-19 then. So, also reasons for any closure were not enough, unlike this time around. And government accepted our stance then. But now the situation is different. When we have reasons for closure.”
But now, he continued, “because of the emergence of this problem now, there are enough reasons on ground to suspend all public gatherings in the state. And this is in accordance with the teachings of Islam.”
In his brief remarks, Governor Ganduje explained further that, “We are going to do all that we can within the seven days lockdown to trace all contracts of our first index case and the contacts of other two people who came back from a foreign nation and since isolated themselves who later turned out to be positive too.”
The Governor thanked the people for their cooperation and understanding of the situation.
He then stated: “The disease is real. We can see how big nations are struggling hard with the problem. Our first index case was in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and came back home. When he came back, he visited some places, that are now under our close surveillance. All the places are fumigated.”
The Governor revealed that all contacts of both first and second index cases are being traced and samples taken from many of them, reiterating that “the seven days lockdown would give us space and more chances to track down those contacts.”