Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has decried that 65 of the 169 almajiris deported from Kano State to Kaduna State have tested positive to coronavirus.
Governor El-Rufai on Channels Television programme, Politics Today, declared: “We received 169 almajiris from Kano, of Kaduna State origin, and we immediately quarantined them because of the situation that we are aware of in Kano.
“Out of the 169 so far, 65 were positive for coronavirus.”
Governor El-Rufai acknowledged that the Northern State Governors’ Forum had a consensus at a meeting three weeks ago, to end the almajiri system in the North.
The Kaduna Governor stated: “What we agreed on as governors, is that each state governor will take delivery of these almajiris and return them to their parents and ensure that they go to school.
“We have repatriated over 30,000 who are from other states in the north, back to their states and we are happy to receive any almajiri from any state of the federation that is indigenous to Kaduna State.”
El-Rufai added: “the only thing we request is that they should be brought in officially by the state government.
“They should be brought to the Kaduna State Government on a bilateral basis, so that we know when they are coming, we can prepare to receive them, we test them and so on.”
He further said: “We are happy to receive them, they are being treated and in fact two of them have already tested negative and they will be taken to their parents soon so that they go to school when schools re-open.
“It is a big problem, but we are happy to receive them because it is our duty to ensure that they go to school.”