Kano State government on Tuesday mulled an extension of the lockdown beyond seven days after recording 23 coronavirus cases on Monday.
While giving an update on a radio programme in Kano yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Salihu Yakasai, said the state government was likely to extend the period of the lockdown.
According to him, the government will impose stiffer sanctions for those who flout the lockdown directive.
He added that a monitoring team would be constituted.
“That the state has just recorded 23 new cases of COVID-19 is an indication that the government is intensifying efforts toward testing people to determine on whether or not they have the virus,” he said.
He commended Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for his efforts at tackling COVID-19 in the state, which informed his decision to shut down the secretariat over two weeks ago and directed all the workers to remain at home.
He also disclosed that the state would commence the distribution of food items to the vulnerable across the 44 local government areas of the state to alleviate the sufferings of the masses arising from the lockdown meant to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, no fewer than eight persons were on Tuesday arraigned before a mobile court in Katsina for violating the state government’s lockdown order.
Three of the violators of the lockdown order told the mobile court that they were in Katsina to drop essential items and they tendered documents to back their claims.
The trio, namely Ibrahim Hassan, Hashimu Hamisu and Aliyu Hamza, said they were drivers in Dangote company and were from Port Harcourt.
The magistrate, Lawan Muhammed, who sat at Kofan Kaoran roundabout, discharged and acquitted the three.
The magistrate warned the other five accused to be of good behaviour for one month.
The lockdown recorded compliance in Katsina and Batagarawa as streets, markets and commercial centres in the two communities remained under lock and key.
The state’s Chief Judge, Justice Danladi Abdullahi, said two mobile courts were established to ensure that people complied with the lockdown order.
He told journalists on Tuesday, “The essence of the mobile courts is to ensure that people comply with the lockdown directive. The lockdown is for the benefit of the people as COVID-19 is real.”
Magistrate Abdulkareem Umar presides over the second mobile court.
Katsina currently has 12 positive cases of COVID-19, among which one death occurred.
