Rep writes Buhari, alleges 100 COVID-19 death in Bauchi

• ‘It Is Not True, We Only Had One Suspected COVID-19 Death’ – CMD, FMC, Azare
• State Task Force Says Mysterious Death Not Caused By Pandemic, It Is Seasonal
• It Is About 30 Deaths Not Up To 300, Says Deputy Governor

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 100 people in Azare council, Bauchi State. The letter was also copied to the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF), Boss Mustapha.

While confirming the letter to The Guardian yesterday on telephone, Ibrahim Baba said he addressed the letter to 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.

The Reps member however said the Federal Government should convert 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 this 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.

“I can tell you as the CMD here, the deaths we have had in recent time is not out of proportion. I can’t talk about the deaths outside the Hospital Communities, I can only talk on what is going on within our hospital, we do not have extra or unusual deaths,” he said.

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.

He said: “We got a lot of reports, somebody will say five people died today and another will say 300 people died today, but these are just reports, I was there myself to interview the people who helped in burying the dead in the graveyard and yes; there have been a number of deaths but this is kind of seasonal, it comes with or without pandemic when it is very hot or cold.”