Pandemonium broke out in Azare, Bauchi state, over a report that 300 lives were claimed by a yet to be identified strange outbreak in the town.
A former member of House of Reps from the state, Ibrahim Mohammed Baba gave the report in a letter addressed to President Buhari soliciting for urgent attention on the outbreak that has killed and still threatening many lives in the said town.
However, the state Deputy Governor, Senator Bala Tela, who doubled as the Chairman Task Force on COVID-19 and Lassa fever, debunked the statement reported as mass death describing it as an exaggeration.
Addressing newsmen at the Bauchi state government house yesterday, Senator Tela said ‘I don’t know the exact casualties, but from the report I get was six persons died each day for seven days consecutively”
However, Shehu Baba Azare a resident of Azare said in the last two weeks, the Azare cemetery has consumed up to 300 persons.
His statement;
“The death rate in Azare is unusual because a total of 301 was registered at the cemetery within 14 days and the dead were from 60 years and above but we don’t know the cause so far,”
Another village head who pleaded anonymity told DailyTrust correspondence that the report of mass death was not true but said, “What I know is that many people have died in the town in the last couple of days but the mass death is not true.”
Another resident, Mohammed Musa, also said ‘As at Friday, there were 301 fresh graves at the Azare Cemetry dug in the last 14 days.
He added anyone can come to the cemetery to confirm this information.
He said the cemetery has a register where it registers all the number of dead bodies that are being taken for burial, so if one wants to verify, he can as well go the cemetery officials.
The only thing he cannot confirm is the cause of their death, Musa added.
He lamented the way the corpses are being escorted to the cemetery with no regard to social distancing, saying if what is killing these people in Azare is Coronavirus, then the community infection would be catastrophic.
The former lawmaker who wrote the complaint letter on May 8, 2020, addressed to Mr President requesting an urgent intervention of the federal government in Azare over what he described as “massive outbreak of coronavirus in Azare town and Environs” which has resulted in the death of over 100 persons in the last one week and have thrown the whole town into confusion.
However, Dr Rilwani Mohammed, the Chairman Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency said the letter was a false alarm.
According to him, the mass death in Azare is not true because yesterday (Friday) the state Task Force Committee on COVID-19 lead by the Deputy Governor, the state commissioner for Health and some WHO officials were in Azare and they held a meeting with the Azare people and nobody raised the alarm of massive death, therefore the letter was just an exaggeration.
