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Isolate suspected cases instead of sending them to North, Zamfara tells Osun

By Tope Templer Olaiya (Lagos) and Joseph Wantu (Makurdi)
01 May 2020   |   4:19 am
The Zamfara State government has described comment credited to Deputy Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor, Adeyanju Abdullahi Biniyo, in which he claimed to have returned Zamfara indigenes to their home state as “dangerous and in bad taste.”

Bello Muhammad Matawalle

• Benue repatriates 58 trafficked persons

The Zamfara State government has described comment credited to Deputy Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor, Adeyanju Abdullahi Biniyo, in which he claimed to have returned Zamfara indigenes to their home state as “dangerous and in bad taste.”

It argued that if there was truly an influx of Zamfara indigenes to Osun State, and the government feels it portended danger due to COVID-19, it was the state government’s responsibility to quarantine them, test them and determine their status, instead of arresting and returning them to their state of origin.

Biniyo was quoted as saying, “They were received by their fellow Northerners who are resident in the state.” The report further quoted Biniyo as describing the Zamfara indigenes as having “sneaked” into the state and that Amotekun security outfit would fish them out and extradite them to their states of origin.

Biniyo was also quoted as saying, “This portends great danger, especially at a time like this when Osun is doing everything possible to avoid community transmission of COVID-19.”

But in a swift reaction yesterday, Zamfara State government in a statement by Special Adviser on Public Enlightenment, Media and Communication to the governor, Zailani Bappa, said Adeyanju’s position lacked statesmanship and smacked of bad taste.

Meanwhile, the Benue State Action Committee on COVID-19 repatriated a batch of 58 persons suspected to have been trafficked into Makurdi to their home states.

Deputy Governor and Chairman of the state’s COVID-19 Action Committee, Benson Abounu, disclosed this when he led a taskforce to repatriate the youths from the state in the early hours of yesterday.

Abounu said the youths had been brought to the state in violation of the lockdown rules and had to be returned to their homes, adding that the committee provided them means of transportation, security and documentation to facilitate their easy passage on the highways.

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