COVID-19: KANO COMMENCES EVACUATION OF ALMANJIRIS
As part of the efforts of Kano State Government to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, it has begun the evacuation of almajiris back to their hometowns.
This was disclosed by the State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, while stating the development on Sunday when he received a situation report from the state’s task force and COVID-19 fund raising committee at the government house in Kano.
Ganduje said the state government had set up a high-powered almajiri committee under the leadership of Murtala Garo, commissioner for local government.
“We closed all schools in the state to curb the spread of the pandemic but we found out that existence of almajiri schools is constituting a stumbling block,” he said.
“We have complete records of all almajiris and their schools in Kano. So far, over 2,000 almajiris had gone back to their states.”
He said the state government had come up with a programme where three categories of almajiris would be taken care of, adding that the first category from neighbouring states of Bauchi, Katsina, Jigawa, Kaduna and Niger Republic would be evacuated to their states.
The second category of almajiris, who were indigenes, would be enrolled into their neighbourhood conventional schools.
He warned that parents who disobey the order would be punished under the law.
“For the third category who are sleeping on the streets, markets and under the bridge, we will take them to our boarding schools where we will provide them with uniforms and feeding,” he added.
Ganduje revealed that, identified vulnerables would be given palliatives, and noted that food items would be distributed to 50,000 households based on the collection so far.
“Each household will receive 25kg bag of rice, semovita or dawavita, one carton of spaghetti or macaroni or indomie; one four-litre gallon of vegetable oil and N2,000 cash,” he said.
Ganduje also appealed to the federal government for additional testing centres, palliative and protective kits.
Kano State has a total of 36 confirmed cases of COVID-19
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