Gravediggers in Kano State have cried out over what they described as unusual death of their members in the wake of reported mass deaths in the state.
Recall that over the last few weeks there had been reported cases of COVID-19 related deaths in the state, a development that forced the state government to launch a verbal autopsy to determine the causes of the deaths.
At the end of the exercise, the state government, in collaboration with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, established that the causes of most of these deaths were related to COVID-19.
Speaking with newsmen on Sunday, one of the gravediggers at the Kofar Mazugal Cemetery, Musa Abubakar, disclosed that in the space of two weeks, five of his co-workers had died of yet-to-be-ascertained ailments.
“Let me tell you that these mass deaths had claimed five of our colleagues. They all died after a brief illness. The situation is terrible and needs God’s intervention,” he said.
The 75-year-old expressed his shock over the dead bodies being brought to the cemetery for burial in the past few days, disclosing that there was a time they dug 40, 35 and 30 graves for three consecutive days.
According to him, from the beginning of the month of Ramadan to date, over 300 people had been buried at the graveyard.
He added that before the outbreak of COVID-19 in the state, gravediggers in the cemetery had never dug more than 4 graves in a day.
“The rate of this death is frightening. Burying corpses is no longer a nightmare as I’m in this job for 60 years.
“But this time around, my shock has been renewed. These deaths are unusual. We normally bury a maximum of 4 to 5 people a day, and not frequently.
“Normally, we bury 1, 2, or 3 a day, but this time around we are burying 40 people in a single day. We dug the grave of 35 people and the following day for 30.
“I swear to God, just from the first Ramadan to date, over 300 people have been buried in this cemetery. This is a terrible situation. My colleagues also are all in panic,” he admitted.
