…OPPOSITION DEMANDS IMMEDIATE TOTAL LOCKDOWN OF ALL EXITS AND ENTRY
POINTS IN KANO
… OPPOSITION ISSUES ADVISORY TO BUHARI: TAKE KANO AS NATIONAL EMERGENCY
AND DEPLOY ALL ARSENALS NOW.
… SAYS KANO IS THE REAL TEST FOR NIGERIA’S FIGHT AGAINST VIRUS
… NIGERIA WILL BE CONSUMED IF ACTION IS NOT TAKEN NOW TO STOP KANO
GROWING INFECTIONS
… DESCRIBES INABILITY OF KANO STATE GOVERNMENT AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO
INVESTIGATE CAUSE OF OVER 700 STRANGE DEATHS IN 96 HOURS AS SHAMEFUL,
INSENSITIVE AND INVITATION TO MORE MASS DEATHS.
… THERE MUST BE AGGRESSIVE CONTACT TRACING FOR IDENTIFICATION, ISOLATION
AND TESTING OF ALL CONTACTS BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF HAND
The Nigeria opposition coalition, CUPP has raised alarm over the rising
cases of the corona virus infection in Kano State which in the last few
days had led to the shutting down of the test centre due to
contamination and infection of some staff of the centre. With alleged
reports that the Commissioner of Health, the Permanent Secretary and
other functionaries of the Ministry of Health are also infected leaves
the State without it first line of administrative defence as that line
had already been taken out by the virus. This alarm is also coming on
the heels of reports of strange deaths happening in the State and the
lack of containment actions for about three to four days. Nigerians
should also recall that the index case had concealed from doctors the
true situations of his health, his travel history and other important
information including other reported reckless acts like visiting mosques
for jumat prayers and attending other social functions.
The CUPP therefore describes as shameful, insensitive and act of evil
leadership the inability of the Federal Government and Kano State
Government to identify the cause of ongoing mass deaths which have
claimed over 700 lives in less than 96hrs. This is undoubted proof and
irrefutable evidence that we have jokers as leaders. Kano State
government and the Federal Government have failed and shown that they
are incompetent and unfeeling about the unfortunate plight of the
citizens. People are dropping dead and being buried in hundreds and a
government says they are looking for the cause and trying to justify
their incompetence over lives by throwing up statistics.
Danger is ahead, infections and strange death with no answers are
ravaging Kano. President Buhari should have mercy on Kano people!
Governor Ganduje should have mercy on Kano people. Whatever Kano people
have done wrong to both of them we plead on their behalf. Do not visit
Kano with death. Find the cause of these deaths to avoid more viral
deaths.
One can steal gubernatorial or presidential mandate but u cannot steal
the capacity to govern. Over a week after the FG and Kano government are
still looking for the cause of death for something ordinary autopsy
would have revealed. What a shame!
It is against these reports that we issue an emergency advisory to
President Muhammadu Buhari to take the Kano situation as a National
emergency and deploy all available arsenals to bring it under control.
The Kano situation is obviously going to be the real test for Nigeria’s
fight against the virus. Nigeria will be consumed if there are delayed
actions on Kano to cut the chain of spread. It is clear that due to
cultural and religious practices, commercial nature of the town,
population, literacy level and the pervading poverty level among a huge
chunk of the population and other competing factors, Kano is a high risk
area to allow the virus to overwhelm. With the current trend, any delay
in tackling the Kano trend is a danger signal which must not be allowed
to happen.
The opposition after receiving medical intelligence and after due
consultations have come to the following conclusion and make the
following demands while we further issue the following advisory:
1. Immediate declaration of health emergency in Kano and deployment of
all medical resources of huge nature to Kano and takeover of the
management of Kano COVID-19 issues from the incompetent Ganduje regime
which has already mismanaged the situation and have put citizens health
in jeopardy with capacity to threaten national security.
2. We demand that President Muhammadu Buhari issues an immediate
lockdown of Kano immediately and deployment of military, police and all
security’s agencies of huge magnitude to enforce at all cost the
lockdown of Kano.
3. We demand that immediate national relief and palliative rooted in all
villages and wards in Kano be deployed not the jankara palliative of the
Humanitarian Affairs Minister that has turned into a media jamboree and
photo shoot to help ensure that the pains is reduced on the Kano people.
4. We demand that nobody is allowed to leave or enter into Kano State
until the growing rate of the infection is contained, infected people
identified, isolated and treated and their contacts identified.
5. We demand that public schools and public infrastructures/buildings be
immediately converted to emergency hostels with mini foams and all the
homeless and orphans and children roaming the streets of Kano evacuated
and moved into such abode and taken care of till the virus is contained.
6. All the quarantine laws and more should be enacted and use of maximum
force where necessary used on religious, political or traditional
leaders who violate the lockdown or safety rules.
7. Emergency mobile testing and sample collection centers and health
response unit be deployed in the 44 Local Government Areas of Kano State
immediately.
8. We advise the governors of States sharing boarders with Kano to
immediately ensure strict no entry or exit into Kano for 14 days.
9. We urge the governors of the states to immediately ensure 14 days
detention, isolation and treatment of any travellers from Kano and Lagos
who enters their state as required.
We demand that the President directs the immediate lockdown of Kano
State including all entry and exit points. The peculiarities of Kano
State being put into consideration, if the chain is not broken early,
the unfortunate situation which led to the unprecedented spread in Italy
may be repeating itself in Nigeria. A delay in the lockdown and urgent
containment might push people to want to escape from Kano to safer
places thereby carrying the virus beyond the borders of the State like
it happened in Italy following a delayed lockdown of Lombardy region in
Northern Italy. The immediate lockdown of Kano with a robust palliative
package transparently distributed to encourage the people to stay
indoors is needed now more than ever. The President must make this call
and he has to make it now without further delay.
Public health of Nigerians in general and particularly the over 20
million Kano residents must be considered above all else. We call for
immediate and aggressive contact tracing for identification, isolation
and testing of all contacts before it gets out of hand.
Fellow countrymen, this is the time to join us to put pressure on
President Buhari to, for once act proactively in the interest of Nigeria
as his hide and seek behaviour and nonchalant hiding-under-the-bed
approach have already put Nigeria in serious trouble with the infection
growing. It is obvious that even with his sole decision to import
Chinese doctors, the infection since the arrival of his doctors now gone
out of control with no positive impact for their invitation. This is not
about politics or who is right or wrong, a leader must listen to advice
of both supporters and opposition. If the President had acted promptly
by shutting down our international boarders and detaining returners for
14 days instead of his go home and self-isolate rules, which led to
innocent Nigerians being put in harms way because the initial wide
spread were imported by several persons, citizens and foreigners, who
entered unchecked following President Buhari’s ill-advised decision to
keep our borders open. He had failed to act fast in the simple last area
left for him to redeem his failed image .
We want to clearly and loudly state it now, let President Buhari take
action on Kano as the evil doom of COVID-19 have started in Kano and
will ravage the entire North and Nigeria if Kano is not confronted. Kano
has weak leadership, Kano has weak health infrastructure if not
nonexistent, Kano has weak economy now, Kano has weak crowd control
system, Kano has population of illiterate kids roaming street and Kano
has going by Federal Government database very many poor people. So
Kano needs our help on time. Kano needs action and the time for that
action is now. If Kano infection goes out of hand, Nigeria and the North
will be hit as migration out of Kano will be too difficult to control.
We call on Governors of the opposition states and the ruling Party to
deploy high surveillance on travelers from Kano and Lagos into their
states and 14days quarantine to avoid losing the gains already made by
those states in reducing the spread of the infection
