Nigerians have shown deepest concern on the worrying development in Kano, where it’s alleged that over hundred people have died from an unknown disease in the last week.
However, Kano State has 77 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Saturday, which is an exponential increase from when the index case was first reported 16 days ago.
The group, Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 Action Programme and Beyond, through its chairman, Femi Falana (SAN) has asked the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire to make available certified true copy of the report of the joint investigation conducted by the Federal and Kano State Ministries of Health into the strange deaths and mass burials taking place in Kano State.
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The request was made pursuant to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act in a letter to the minister dated April 26 and titled: “Request for Information on Strange deaths and Mass Burial in Kano State Pursuant to Freedom of Information Act”.
It said “the report should include the nature and cause of the deaths, the number of casualties and patients currently undergoing treatment in hospitals as well as an outline of the measures being put in place by the Federal Government to stop the strange deaths involving mass burials”.
The group gave Dr Ehanire seven days to furnish it with the details of its findings under the provisions of the FoI Act failure of which it threatened to take steps within the law to compel official disclosure.
“Take notice that if you fail to accede to our request, we shall not hesitate to invoke the relevant provisions of the law to compel official disclosure of the findings of the joint team constituted to investigate the cause of the strange deaths and mass burials in Kano State”, it warned.
Falana recalled that during a press briefing held at Abuja a week ago, the Health Minister announced that the Federal Ministry of Health, the Kano State Chief Epidemiologist, Officials of the Kano Public Health Department and those of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had commenced investigation into the strange deaths and mass burials currently going on in Kano State.
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He said the group is disturbed that the burials have since continued without any official information on the cause of the strange deaths.
“The people of Kano State and Nigerians, in general, are worried over the worsening health crisis as it may spread to other parts of Kano State not yet affected as well as other parts of the country if not urgently addressed.
“Since the Kano State government is completely overwhelmed, we hereby call on the federal government to take over the management of the crisis without any further delay”, the group advised.
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