Seven employees of Kwami and Billiri Local Government Primary Healthcare Departments in Gombe State are currently in police net “for diverting 5,450 Insecticides Treated Nets (ITNs) meant for free distribution in their communities.”
The state government, with support from Global Fund, the Catholic Relief Services and the National Malaria Elimination Programme are sponsors of free distribution of the nets.
The Commissioner for Health in Gombe State, Dr Habu Dahiru, told a news conference in Gombe on Saturday that the suspects were arrested on Sept. 10.
Dahiru said that the ITNs were meant to reduce the burden of malaria in the state, especially amongst the most vulnerable groups – women and children.
He lamented that the nets were “unpatriotically and criminally diverted for personal aggrandisement by these persons’’.
