Kano State: Professors, Banker, Editor, Grand Khadi Among Over 150 Dead In Kano Within 24 Hours
The death of an economic icon, Prof. Ibrahim Ayagi; Professor of Physiology, Prof. Aliyu Abdullahi Umar Dikko; Regional Manager of First Bank in Kano, Abdullahi Lawal; erstwhile Managing Director of the Defunct Continental Merchant Bank; and Mallam Musa Ahmad Tijjani, ex-Editor of Leadership Sunday and Triumph newspapers, and four other illustrious personalities after brief illness not necessarily linked to the deadly pandemic has raised eyebrows in the ancient city. However, the COVID-19 Testing Centre in Kano State has been shut down since Wednesday because it was learnd that most of the workers got infected.
It was gathered that not a few suspect that the eminent personalities, who just died, might have succumbed to the strange illness since there was no evidence of their being tested for Coronavirus since the COVID-19 Testing Centre in Kano has been shut down with no definite date for resumption of the test in the most populous state in Nigeria.
Their demise, PRNigeria gathered, occurred within a space of 24 hours.
The number of those who died was put at over 150. They all died between April 24 and 25, 2020.
The other high-profile personalities include Alhaji Adam Iliyasu Dal, a former Chairman of the Kano State Civil Service Commission; Nasiru Maikano Bichi; Dr. Musa Umar Gwarzo; and Ustaz Dahiru Rabiu, who is a former Grand Khadi of Kano State.
The late Prof. Ayagi was a Commissioner for Economic Development in the State from 1975 to 1978, just as he was also a former Director-General of Kano Foundation from 1987 to 1990.
Ayagi, who is also the proprietor of Hassan Ibrahim Gwarzo College in Kano, died on Saturday after a protracted illness at the age 80.
Prof. Dikko was former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the Bayero University Kano.
He was involved in the opening of three faculties of Medicine/Basic Medical Sciences in Bayero University, Kaduna State University and Yusuf Maitama Sule University.
As for Lawal, PRNigeria gathered that the First Bank Regional Manager in Kano died from a suspected case of COVID-19.
Family sources said immediately the late Banker took ill, he was first put on admission at a private clinic, from where he was referred to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.
Sources said the late Lawal, who was in his early 50s, was rushed to a private clinic after he suffered high fever, intermittent cough and respiratory hiccups without getting medical care, before he gave up the ghost.
In an audio recording, the mother-in-law to the banker alleged that the negligence of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in Kano led to the death of her son-in-law, as she cried out that her daughter and grandchildren be taken in for tests to confirm if they have contracted the dreaded COVID-19.