The Northern Governors Forum, NGF, has resolved to begin plans for the setting up of Coronavirus mobile testing vans to cover rural areas across the region.
The Forum’s chairman and Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, disclosed this at the end of the governors’ teleconference on Friday.
A statement on Friday by Mr Lalong’s Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr. Makut Macham, noted that the governors also decried the inadequate number of testing centers in the region.
He said: “The Forum reviewed some of the issues they earlier raised such as the request for more COVID-19 Testing Centres in the North which are grossly inadequate.”
While acknowledging some improvement through the intervention of the Federal Government, the governor, however, said that the improvement was still a far cry, going by its population and increase in COVID-19 cases.
“They, therefore, decided to purchase mobile Testing Vans which they believe will facilitate testing in the rural areas,” the statement added.
The Forum commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his quick intervention in Kano State to curtail the spike in the number of COVID-19 infections in the state.
On inter-state border closure, the governors lamented that the borders were still being compromised, saying that more illegal routes were being created to bypass the security operatives.
According to the governors, such compromise is capable of proliferating the inter-state transfer of the virus.
The Forum noted that some of the trucks transporting goods are also used in smuggling people across states, in violation of the movement restrictions.
“On the profiling and return of Almajiris to their States of origin, the governors noted that the exercise has commenced and is going on well except for some few logistic challenges, which are being addressed, between governors of originating and receiving States,” the statement noted.
The governors, therefore, agreed that all Almajiris sent from one state to another should be profiled, tested and accompanied by state officials and their Alaramas (teachers) to facilitate the process of settling in.
The statement further disclosed that the governors were also briefed on the post-COVID-19 Economic Blueprint for the region by the chairman of the committee, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State.
Mr Bagudu, according to the statement, said that a document in that regard was being developed and would soon be presented to the Forum.
The leadership of the forum, therefore, mandated the Governors of Kebbi, Katsina, Borno, and Plateau to engage the leadership of security agencies on the threat of banditry, terrorism, and kidnapping in the region.
The governors lamented that agricultural activities were being challenged in the region as farmers are afraid to go to their farms for fear of attacks.
