A 70-year-old grandmother, Mrs Salma Ahmed, is crying out for help to save her daughter and grandchildren from coronavirus after losing her son-in-law to COVID-19.
According to our findings, the deceased, Abdullahi Lawal, was a Regional Manager with First Bank in Kano.
Lawal, who is reported to be in his early 50s, was said to have been rushed to a private clinic after he suffered high fever, intermittent cough, and respiratory hiccups without getting medical care before he gave up the ghost.
In a voice message to all Nigerians from her home in Abuja, Mrs Ahmed said her Lawal was left to die from the virus/disease in Kano after suffering neglect in the hands of officials of the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC) and the Kano State Government.
She accused NCDC officials in Kano of not attending to her son-in-law when his condition was brought to their notice, while the agency’s officials she complained to in Abuja also lied to her that the matter was being taken care of.
Full text of her message presented below:
I am Sadma Ahmed speaking from Abuja
I have a problem with the Kano Government and NCDC, Kano.
My son-in-law has been sick since Monday
My daughter called me and told me it’s a high fever.
I told her, high fever? And she told me it’s typhoid. When she told me it’s typhoid fever, I asked her if she was sure.
Because this typhoid fever; somebody will say it’s typhoid fever, from there he will be coughing, and from coughing to sneezing, are you sure?
She said Yes, that they had given him drugs and they are at home now taking the drugs. I said ok. Then on Tuesday, I called and asked how was feeling. She said he’s getting better little by little, Then I said okay, as far he’s getting better – no problem.
Yesterday, around 3 am, she called to say she cannot talk again, that his breathing is high. I said but I have told you before; maybe this problem he’s having is Covid-19.
If somebody is having a fever and he cannot talk properly, and he’s coughing, what do you expect? This is Covid-19. Please, rush him to the hospital. Have you called NCDC?
She said yes, they have been calling since yesterday night, that all the phone lines are not going through, that somebody gave them another number again, and they have been calling the number again – and the number is ringing but nobody was responding to that call.
So I decided to call the NCDC in Abuja.
After calling them, they said they will get back to me – that they will call the Kano branch now and tell them what is happening.
They asked me where is he now, and I said I have taken him to a private hospital named the international hospital in Kano.
When they took him to the international hospital in Kano, they admitted him and fixed oxygen on him.
After about 1 hour, another doctor came in and told them to go to Mada Aminu Kano, that he wasn’t responding to the oxygen.
I know saying he’s not responding to the oxygen is just a way for the doctor to drive them away from that hospital and I don’t blame him.
So on getting to Aminu Kano hospital, they put him on oxygen again. I called the NCDC in Abuja again and asked how far. Have the people started going?
Because they have dropped them from the international hospital, that they have now gone to Mada Aminu kano Hospital, and he said they will go there.
Every 30 minutes I kept calling them (NCDC) in Abuja because the one in Kano is not responding, and he kept telling me that they will soon be taken to the NCDC Kano.
When the thing was getting out of hand, I called the man and begged him to tell me the truth. What is happening? He then told me that the NCDC in Kano has been shutdown. I said you knew they have been shut down, why did you continue playing with my intelligence – saying they will soon go there?
He said sorry madam and I replied okay.
So I called Ray Power Radio. I was live on ray power around 4 o clock. I explained my complaint to them – my son-in-law died after 2hours while she was admitted to Aminu hospital. He died after 2 hours.
So I am holding the Kano Government and NCDC Kano branch responsible for the death of my son-in-law, and what presently hurts me the most is that my heart is broken into pieces. What will happen to my children (my daughter) and my grand-children?
What will happen to them when there is no NCDC in Kano, what will happen to them?
I want people to come to my aid. I am dying and I’m an old woman. I don’t want my children and grand-children to die in Kano. There is no NCDC in Kano.
People should come to my aid o
They should come and help me – I am dying, and they should not allow my children in Kano to die. Please, they should help me.N CDC in Abuja please take note, see what you can do.FCT minister, please help me. I’m shouting to anybody, everybody who can help me.
If you can hear this, anybody that knows how to help me; let him or her help me, so that they can go and test my children and grandchildren. Please, help me.
That is all I have to say. My heart is broken into pieces. I’m an old woman. My age is 70 years old – I’m old. Please, help me. The general public. If there’s anything that anybody can do, he should help me. Thank you, everybody..
KaftanPost learnt that the decision by NCDC to close down its Kano might not be unconnected to the incidents of coronavirus infections among the Agency’s personnel in Kano.
No fewer than 40 NCDC personnel are believed to have caught the virus bug, a development that might have alarmed the leadership at the agency to the centre down.
An NCDC source told KaftanPost that when the Director-General, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, heard about this news, she makes several calls to the NCDC here in Abuja which resulted to them sending their team to Kano for sampling and the team went to Kano and samples were taken for the test.
He had ordered the affected staff to be taken to an isolation centre and the Jani Centre decontaminated.
The source opined that “obviously, the Kano staff treated the pandemic with levity”, thinking the virus was not in Kano yet.
However, the Minister of State for FCT, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, claims to have intervened on the matter and somehow got the family into isolation.
“When Dr Ramatu heard about this news she made several calls to NCDC here in Abuja which resulted for them sending their team to Kano for sampling and the team went to Kano and samples were taken for test,” our source disclosed.
