Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The Katsina State Government has shut down not less than 69 primary healthcare centres across the frontline local government areas of the state over the prevailing nefarious activities of terrorists.
The Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Shamsudeen Yahaya, disclosed this Tuesday in an interview with journalists in Katsina.
He said the affected primary healthcare facilities are located in different hard-to-reach communities in Jibia, Safana, Batsari, Faskari, Sabuwa and other frontline local government areas of the state.
He added that the rampaging terrorists had set ablaze two recently renovated primary healthcare centres in Batsari Local Government, saying insecurity had significantly affected healthcare delivery in the state.
He said: “Some of the facilities especially in those compromised local government areas have a challenge accessing them. For example, we renovated two facilities in Batsari but they were attacked and burnt by bandits.
“Right now, about 69 facilities are closed down in Jibia, Safana, Batsari, Sabuwa, Faskari and other LGAs due to insecurity and we had some of our staff that were kidnapped but later on they were released.
“Another challenge is that almost every week, we receive requests from our staff, especially females, that they should be moved from those areas to either Katsina, Batagarawa or Kaita. These are the issues that we are fencing.”
He, however, said the state government had perfected plans to recruit 272 health workers to tackle the problem of manpower besetting the health sector in the state.
