- Begins repatriation of over 200,000 Almajiri
Kano State government is set to distribute palliative items to over 300,000 households in the state as part of its efforts to alleviate the sufferings of its people under the current lockdown, the Chairman, Kano State Fund Raising Committee on COVID-19, Professor Muhammad Yahuza Bello, has said.
Professor Bello, who is also the Vice Chancellor of Bayero University Kano, made the disclosure while updating Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje on the activities of the committee at Africa House, Kano Government house.
The vice chancellor explained that although the committee targeted 300,000 households for the exercise, it would start with 50,000 households.
He said four households would be selected from each of the 11,222 polling units, making a total of 44,888 households targeted to be supported during the exercise.
Bello said each household would get 25kg bag of rice or Semovita/ Dawavita, a carton of macaroni/ spaghetti/noodle and a four liter gallon of vegetable oil with N2, 000 cash.
He said the items would be channelled to the beneficiaries through two different committees; a local government committee, to be headed by the district head, and a ward committee chaired by a village head.
In his address, the Chairman of the committee on evacuation of Almajiri pupils, Alhaji Muratala Sule Garo, informed the governor that the committee has begun repatriation of none-indigene Almajiris from the state.
Garo, who is also the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, said the committee had identified a total of 251, 893 Almajiri across the eight Metropolitan local governments of the state, adding that out of the figures, only 79,411 were indigenes of the state, while 178,472 were non-indigenes.
He said most of the non-indigenes were from the neighboring Kaduna, Bauchi, Jigawa, Zamfara, Yobe, Gombe, Nasarawa and Katsina States as well as Niger Republic.
Garo said although the committee was still at the stage of dialogue with Qur’anic scholars, 1,452 Almajiri would be returned to their respective villages and towns in other states this week.
He said that those who are indigenes would be taken care of by the government, and enrolled in the new boarding schools recently constructed.
In his presentation, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Ibrahim Muktar, said the state had come up with new regulations under Kano State Public Health Law 1991 to curb the menace of spreading false information about COVID-19.
Mukhtar said the new regulations, which came under the Federal Government Quarantine Act 2004, was promulgated to protect and restrict any action considered as a threat to the ongoing fight against coronavirus in the state.
“The new regulation is not a law or executive order but a pursuant or extension of existing law of Kano State Public Health 1991.
“The 1991 law did not envisage a situation we now found ourselves. By this regulation, the governor is empowered to restrict movement, number of people attending an event or closure of places like mosques, churches or markets considered threat.
“The Governor can also order the arrest of any person declining invitation to test for COVID-19 or remain in 14 days quarantine. Penalties for violating this new regulation attract a fine, jail sentence or both.
“The new regulations, tagged Kano State Public Health Infectious Diseases Regulations 2020, also enabled the office of the Governor the powers to confiscate any food item, drug and other essential commodities in hoarding or unduly inflated due to COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Responding, Ganduje assured that the new law would be applied on anybody who violates government directives on COVID-19.
“We locked down Kano in order to give our health personnel the opportunity to trace those that have contacts with those that have tested positive for the COVID-19,” he said.
