Health worker drowns, 3 others injured as boat capsizes

A malaria prevention worker has drowned in Bafarawa River in Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State, the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports.

The deceased was travelling with three other colleagues in a canoe to Bafarawa town on Tuesday when it capsised.

The deceased, (name withheld), and the three others, who were rescued, were among the officials conducting the ongoing Seasonal Malaria Chemo-Prevention Programme.

The four-day exercise, which will end on Sept. 2, was part of efforts to reduce the scourge of malaria in the state.

The Manager of the State Malaria Programme, Alhaji Aminu Umar, has confirmed the incident.

Umar told NAN in Sokoto on Thursday that one of the four officials lost his life

'' The others had since been discharged from the hospital, while the deceased had been buried according to Islamic rites.''

Umar said that he had led a delegation to Isa town to condole with the families of the deceased and sympathise with those of the others who were injured.

NAN recalls that, Gov. Aminu Tambuwal, on Saturday, in Isa town, headquarters of Isa Local Government Area, flagged off the house-to-house campaign.

The campaign is targeted at the administration of preventive malarial drugs to an estimate of 1.8 million children in the state.