By Tina George, Minna
COVID-19 patients in Niger state have disclosed that they were not treated with any drug for coronavirus, during their stay at the isolation centre.
The patients who were discharged stated that they did not even receive paracetamol as drugs, adding that they were made to stay at the centre for 14 days before they were told to return home.
One of the patients, who spoke to newsmen on behalf of others, decried the inhuman and shabby treatment meted on them during their stay and after they were discharged.
The patient, who was picked up from Zumba village in Shiroro local government, said after he tested positive, the officials of the isolation centre did not give them anything apart from food and water.
He alleged that some of them had to sleep on the floor as there were insufficient beds for everyone to sleep on.
“Throughout the 14 days of quarantine in the isolation centre, no drug, not even paracetamol drug was given to me. They only gave us food every day.
“I was not retested to prove that I am COVID-19 negative, after 14 days. I was just told that I am negative and I should go home. No explanation, nothing.”
The patient also complained that after being told to go home, he, along with his family members were not taken to the park to take a vehicle to Zumba neither were they given transport fare.
“They just came and asked us to go. We trekked from the isolation centre at the back of the police secondary school to the main road. From there again, we trekked till Dutsen Kuran Gwari before someone assisted us to Sabon Gari junction.
“It was at Sabon Gari that a commercial vehicle carried us to Zumba where we had to borrow money from our people to pay the driver”.
He stated that the way they were treated was inhumane, adding that no human being should be treated that way.
“We were treated as if we were lepers. No information about our status or information about how to behave or act after isolation. They just left us on our own. No one should be treated that way. I know of what is being done in other states, why is Niger state different? They are just indifferent and behave as if we did not exist.”
It would be recalled that some weeks back, there was a video making rounds where patients of the isolation centre in Minna came out to speak vehemently against the way they were being treated at the isolation centre.
But the video was discredited by the state government, describing it as fake news and something that should not be taken seriously.
All attempts by Newsdiaryonline to get the reaction of the state Chairman of the Taskforce on COVID 19, the secretary to the state government, Alhaji Ahmed Matene and the Commissioner of Health, proved abortive as they were not picking their calls.
They did not also reply to the text messages sent to them, two hours before filing the report.
It would also be noted that since the taskforce on COVID-19 began their operations, they have not briefed Journalists and have not been picking calls regarding complaints and observations on the happenings across the state, the isolation and quarantine centres in the state capital.
