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John Adams, Minna
COVID-19 patients that are being discharged from isolation centres in Minna, the Niger State capital, have complained about they describe as ‘inhumane and shabby treatment’ meted to them during and after they were discharged.
Some of the patients who spoke to our correspondent after they were discharged claimed that apart from alleged overcrowding at the centres, some of them were made to sleep on the floor, and were discharged without transport fares back to their homes.
The state government on May 12th had disclosed that it had 95 people in its isolation centres, including seven Almajiri from Kaduna.
These Almajiri, according to a source close to the isolation centre in Minna, have since disappeared from the centre without undergoing treatment.
In addition to this, they also allege that throughout the 14 days of quarantine, no drug, not even paracetamol, was administered to them, only to be told that they have tested negative and are free to go home, despite being confirmed positive for COVID-19 initially.
One of the discharged patients who was picked up from Zumba in Shiroro local government after his boss, a former staff of the Segmentary National Control Center (SNCC), was said to have died of the disease in Kano, told our correspondent that initially he was told that he had tested positive after his result came from Abuja, leading to his quarantine.
He was expected to undergo treatment but that, apart from food, nothing was administered to him in the form of treatment, saying that ‘they did not give me a single drug,’ the patient told our correspondent.
‘They only give us food every day, that is all. No single drug, not even paracetamol was given to me throughout the 14 days,’ he added.
His mother and other relatives who were also isolated due to having had contact with him have all been allowed to go home and without transport fare, he said.
‘They just came and asked us to go. We trekked from the isolation centre at the back of the police secondary school to the main road. From there again we trekked to Dutsen Kuran Gwari before someone assisted us to Sabin Gari junction.’
He narrated further that: ‘It was at Sabin Gari that a commercial vehicle carried us to Zumba before we now borrowed money from our people to pay the driver.’
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello had at the outbreak of the pandemic released N400 million to the state COVID-19 task force committee to help contain the spread of the virus.
All attempts by our correspondent to get a reaction from the chairman of the task force and the secretary to the state government, Alhaji Ahmed Matene, were unsuccessful.
The following text message had also sent to him with no reply as of the time of this report:
‘Barka da Sallah sir. My name is John Adams of the sun newspaper, Minna. Sir, I just wanted to find out what is the arrangement by the state COVID19 committee regarding those patients that are being discharged from isolation centres, concerning transport money back to their destination, since they were picked up by the committee from their homes. They complained of not being giving transport money after discharged. What is the position of your committee to this? Thanks.’
