A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ibrahim Mohammed Baba has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari claiming that COVID-19 has kil
A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ibrahim Mohammed Baba has written a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari claiming that COVID-19 has killed over 150 people in Azare council, Bauchi State. The letter was also copied to the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF), Boss Mustapha.
Ibrahim Baba in the letter, asked the President and PTF for quick action to rescue his constituents. In the letter, the lawmaker said: “The massive outbreak of Coronavirus in Azare town and environs has already resulted in over 100 fatalities in the last one week, and this has thrown the entire area into great mourning, panic and confusion.
“The centrality and proximity of Azare to Bauchi (metropolis), Kano and some major cities of Jigawa State make the town’s large population susceptible to the virus due to the already existing large cases of the disease in those areas.”
He also appealed to the President to direct the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to urgently reach out to the area with all the necessary facilities and palliative to assist the communities, adding that an unused Opthalmology unit and laboratory that was built and equipped by the Central Bank of Nigeria in the area to a COVID-19 testing lab and treatment centre.
Ibrahim said: “Every blessed day, people are dying in numbers and nobody is doing anything on it. I know that the Federal Medical Centre workers are doing their best but they need more support in the area of equipment and manpower to improve. Most of our people don’t believe that COVID-19 is real. Some of them are saying it is another mysterious disease as witnessed in Kano. Though, some of these deaths have not being tested but I can tell you, more than 10 people including doctors have tested positive.”
But the Chief Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Azare, Dr. Abdullahi Ibrahim said the allegations made by the lawmaker in the letter did not represent the reality. “Honestly, it is not true. The only Covid-19 related death is only one, only one, and it has not been ascertained. The result is not yet out. Also, that of the former Chief Judge, Dahiru Saleh is not yet out.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the State Task Force on Disease Control, the Deputy Governor Baba Tela, while confirming the report said the deaths were not caused by the pandemic, saying it might have been caused by the extreme weather (cold or hot), which occurs in its seasons.
While the governor, Bala Mohammmed admitted that over 150 people have died in Azare, Katagum local government area of the state, he however contradicted his deputy by attributing the deaths to hypertension.
