• Residents of Kano state have been thrown into a state of pandemonium following the massive burial of over 190 people in less than one week.
• The losses from the inexplicable deaths that is ravaging Kano state has continued to soar.

Several reports claim that no less than 190 people had been buried within four days in Kano. Meanwhile, the cause of these deaths is yet to be ascertained.

Just last week after the state recorded its first case of the deadly virus, the state already has a total of 73 confirmed Coronavirus cases according to the NCDC.

Although the state imposed a lockdown shortly after recording its first COVID-19 case last week, it is the state with the fastest rising number of cases across the country.

Some people have expressed worry that the strange deaths in Kano may be connected to the fatal COVID-19. but, some worry it could be a different thing.

According to reports from This Day, undertakers who also work as grave-diggers in certain cemeteries in Kano state said the number of deaths has increased.

According to them, the rate at which they receive corpses these days is unusual in comparison to the number of corpses received before the coronavirus outbreak.

Areas where an increase in deaths have been reported include; Zage, Kano Municipal, Tarauni, Gwale, Kurna, Dala, Chiromawa, Zango, Kofar Mata, Fagge, Kumbotso, and some local government areas outside the metropolitan like Bichi, Kunchi, Wudil, Gwarzo, and Shanono.

Adamu Umar, a cemetery guard at farm centre, said he buried over 17 people on Sunday alone.

According to Umar, the situation is scary, as it has never been so since he began working there in the last four years.

Also speaking baout the inciden is Bashir Mohammed, one of the undertakers at the Dandolo Cemetery in Goron Dutse, Dala Local Government Area of Kano State.

Mohammed said, “This is worrisome, we are becoming overwhelmed by what we are seeing here these days because, to me, the way people are dying is not ordinary.” 

According to Mohammed, popularly known as Mai Sana’a, between Saturday and Sunday, over thirty people were buried in the cemetery.

That massive number of burial is in contrast to the maximum daily record of ten burials previously.

These figures above exempts other cemeteries in other parts of the state that has not been mentioned.

Although, cemetery workers in the other cemeteries said they have not noticed anything unusual.

Tijjani Hussaini, the state’s executive secretary of the primary healthcare board, said they were yet to determine the cause of the deaths, but that the situation had “sent residents panicking.”

“The investigation is prompted by reports that more deaths have been recorded in the past seven days. We want to know the number of persons already dead. We also want to investigate how they died,” he said.

“It is when we have a good idea; it is when we get the outcome of the findings that we can properly draw conclusions and brief the public.”

Mustapha Hikima, the chief medical director of Nassarawa Hospital, said the areas where deaths have been reported are densely populated which makes the number trivial.

“We don’t have the baseline information, but considering the high population size of Kano, the increase in the deaths is not significant,” he said. 

He added that “after the quick survey, the result had shown that there was no significant increase in the rate of death recorded in the state.”

He continued:  “We should also take the time of the occurrence of the deaths into consideration. The time happens occasionally.

“So it is subjective to judge when a case happens within just three days. To me, this is not a serious problem because it happens sometimes. So I appeal to people to be calm.” 

In any case, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has ordered a thorough investigation to ascertain the cause of alien deaths.

Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, who acknowledged the strange deaths, told journalists that government had swung into action to assess the matter.

Garba, however, disagreed that the sudden rise in the case of death in Kano was related to the coronavirus disease.

He further stated that Governor Ganduje had directed the state’s ministry of health to investigate it.

“The Kano government says it has activated community informants structure of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to report deaths and cause of deaths and has also deployed officers in all cemeteries to count bodies brought in for burial every day.

Some Nigerians have taken to social media to express their fears following the increase in death.