Due to surrounding situations of the COVID-19 Index Case in Plateau State, the test result of a young 20 year old lady and one other, Jat HotNews sought to know the true situation of things. The people of Dogon Karfe Community in Jos are being Stigmatized on the way other communities relate with them.
The Youth Leader of Dogon Karfe, Muhammad Shugaba spoke on issues bothering his community and how precautionary measures can be taken to avoid legal action.
Enjoy the Excerpts:
Jat HotNews:- May we know you?
Muhammad Shugaba: My name is Muhammad Shugaba and the Youth Leader in Dogon Karfe Community.
Jat HotNews:- We heard of the controversy over the girl that was tested positive for the Corona Virus. Do you have anything to tell us about that?
Muhammad Shugaba: On the 16th of April,2020 our daughter returned from Kano, she is not a visitor. When there was a little opening in Kano she came here even though Dogon Karfe is not a border town and an alarm was raised in the community that she just came back from Kano and the Government sensitization says anyone that comes from another state or country should be on isolation for some period of time but it would have been hard for her to go on isolation with the amount of people in her compound so we made a call to the Committee on COVID-19 in Plateau State and they came in on the morning of 17th of April,2020 to pick her for isolation and proper observation where she has been with them since then. Even though as a community we faced some challenges during the time they came to pick her, it was not easy. We thank God that we are a community that has leadership.I was instructed to stand and make sure she has been taken which was done. The Director of Public Health led the team, we asked if anyone in the family could visit her and she said yes, three days later the family visited even though we had to explain to everyone in the community why she was taken to the isolation center, everyone became calm. Five days later she put a call to her parents that she wasn't being fed well and asked to be brought some foodstuffs. The parents met us and asked if they could take the foodstuffs to her and we agreed.When they took it to her, she complained that she was not feeling too well since she had ulcer and that the food given to her which was yam porridge caused her to vomit. We were keenly waiting to see what was happening to her, only for the results to be out on the social media.The results probably came out on Thursday evening which was a week after she was picked. We sat and discussed as a community about what was right and what wasn't like if that is the way the result is supposed to be released? But we disregarded the information since it was not formally informed by the Government or the Committee on Covid 19 or the NCDC. Three hours later the Commissioner of Health put a call to the Mai Angwa informing him that she was tested positive, he then said he will come for contact tracing and so on, as a community we said they are coming for our well being to curtail the situation. The Mai Angwa called all his Cabinet members for an urgent meeting agreeing to give them all necessary support but the questions we kept asking was if the girl was informed of her status and she said "no", immediately after she cut the call she started getting calls from people telling her that she had the Corona virus we then asked other people staying at the centre if they were told their status and they said they just saw it on the social media which caused doubts in the community. We as a community waited for the the commissioner to come over the next day so we could lay out our concerns asking him the questions on our minds, unfortunately the commissioner did not come but sent a representative in person of the Director Public Health leading the team and a member of the NCDC.We then asked where the commissioner was and she said he was not around but he sent them. We asked them some simple questions like, "Did you see the girl in the center? Or call the people on the centre?", and they said "no" then how do you want us to believe what you have done? On Friday morning they called the Mai Angwa by 4: 00am saying they would come by 6:00am and that was when we started the Ramadan fast but we couldn't attend to him till the next day, by 8am we waited but they postponed it till 10am in which they came with the Government.
As a government, the message sent by their representatives arrived and they sent some representatives spear headed by the SGS Prof. Danladi Atu and three other commissioners including the Commissioner of Health.They introduced themselves and so did we as a community and we wrote that we will not take it as a community the way it was led and we will not agree with the result due to the terrible scenario. The Government headed by Prof. Atu apologized to the community in the meeting, to a certain level, we took the apology, we then agreed to give enough support in relations to her contacts and even samples from her family. Even though there was commotion in the community due to the way and manner it was handled they came in and did their work, the samples were taken the next day.We came to a conclusion that since they are from one compound they should all go on a self isolation but how would they cope, the Government said they would be given Palliatives to be able to cope during their self isolation, they are currently on the self isolation. We have been following the situation keenly and we are waiting to see the end of it, all the necessary tests have been taken and the girl has been moved to JUTH for treatment and we have been communicating with her on the situation and with the information she has been giving us we are a bit relaxed.
But our major issue is the stigmatization of the community, it should be tackled. Like some days ago a woman from our community went to the Plateau Hospital which is a State Hospital and was refused to be attended to, because she was from here. We are waiting for the Government to come so that we can lay our complaints,so we can know the next line of action to take.
In our letter we said we will take legal actions even though we are waiting for the community to decide the next line of action. So far, that is what has transpired and we will give the Government a little mark for what has happened so far.
Jat HotNews:- Do you have any call to the Government and officials of the hospital to the stigma of people from your community?
Muhammad Shugaba: Our first call to the Government is that they need to come out clear and explain. In this case of the Covid 19 they now the gravity of it and most people base their claims on what they hear from the Government, they should come and stop all this mess. To the general public, this is not a death sentence,based on what we know their are more deadly diseases that are around us wherever we are. It dosen't mean people need to stigmatize the whole community and all we pray for is that she should be ok and get well soon and if there is any other person in the community he or she should be taken care of, the Government needs to educate people.
Jat HotNews:- Has the Government given the community any palliatives as it is said all over the town?
Muhammad Shugaba: The Government have not given us anything and if they have they should prove it. The palliatives they gave is for the people on self isolation. And the 100,000 naira they gave was also for the people under the self isolation not the community. This is the community that has about 4 polling units and we could reach almost 10,000 in a community, that amount of money could not do anything for us.
Jat HotNews:- Is the picture circulating in the social media that of your daughter or not?
Muhammad Shugaba: It is not her picture. Even some media houses are reporting wrongly. And that is why we rejected some of this. We believe the media should give correct information and if the media gives wrong information who will know what is true and what is not. There are some information saying she sneaked into Plateau through different points, through Jos North, , Gindiri and was caught in Yelwa, Shendam and if you here it, the person circulating such information isn't versed with Plateau that well, this is where her parents were born and she has not known anywhere but here. This conflicting information makes you wonder who we should believe, the Government needs to give valid information to the people of Plateau State.
Jat HotNews:- Lastly, do you have any call to people of your community to calm them down so they could liaise with the Government so that necessary diligence is followed so that the matter will be brought to a close?
Muhammad Shugaba: It is a call we have been on since she came back, what I want to do is to thank the people of our community for giving support to our leadership of the community because they have done what we have not expected giving 100% support and at anytime the NCDC and the Committee On COVID-19 know that the community gave them all the necessary support. The community made it clear that I should be the only one to speak whenever they are around and before speaking I have to consult the Mai Angwa and the Council members before I speak and I only speak within the range of what I am asked to speak about. I want to thank them for their support and understanding to leadership. Prosperity will judge us tomorrow and the Government will know that we tried to free the Plateau for the Covid 19 pandemic. We will continue to brief them on all that is happening, it is not over until it is over.
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