COVID-19: Stop noise-making, almajirai evacuated to Kano also tested positive – Ganduje replies El-Rufai

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State on Sunday broke his silence and hit hard on his counterpart Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to stop noise making and politicizing issue of almajirai evacuated to the state who have tested positive to novel coronavirus.

This was as he said some of the almajirai also evacuated to Kano State during the exercise, were COVID-19 positive but the fact that it is, and I did not make noise about it doesn’t mean that they were all healthy and without Covid-19 infection.

Recall that Governor El-Rufai had said about 50 almajirai or more evacuated to the state from Kano state had tested positive for COVID-19 and also Jigawa and Gombe states 16 and 8 respectively.

Governor Ganduje in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar and made available to newsmen in the state said what the children (almajirai) need at that critical point was caregiving instead of noise making and politicizing the issue.

The statement titled, “We are not making politics out of it, no noise making.

“To put record straight on the movement of Almajiri across states of the federation and how Kano embarks on the exercise.


“We agreed at the Northern Governors Forum that all Almajiris moved to their states of origin. That is why we are sending, in good faith and procedures, all Almajiris that are not from Kano state to their respective states of origin.

“The exercise was not political and should not be politicized.

“The way we are sending back Almajiris to their states of origin, we are also receiving Almajiris from other states who are Kano indigenes. But the fact that we are not making noise about it does not mean they are all healthy without COVID-19 infections.

“Let’s make it categorically clear that, some of the Almajiris brought to Kano during the exercise, are also COVID-19 positive, but we are not making politics out of it. Because we all believe that what they need most now, is not noise making or publicity. What they need at this critical point in time is, caregiving.

“People should also understand that these children were not infected in the process of transporting them to their respective states. So noise making is not fit as a way forward. All we are doing is simply to comply with the Northern Governors’ Forum decision that all Almajiris in our states should be taken back to their respective states, simple,” the statement however reads.

Meanwhile, the rivalry between the two could be traced back to when the former Kano Emir, Muhammad Sanusi II was dethroned and banished to Nassarawa State and El-Rufai visited him (Sanusi), appoint him Chancellor of Kaduna State University and also Vice Chairman of the board of Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency and a development which seems not to go down well with the Ganduje side.

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