Desmond Mgboh, Kano

A wave of panic withdrawals, alongside rush purchases, have hit several markets and commercial institutions in the city of Kano ahead of the 7-day lockdown declared by the state government.

Recall that Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje on Tuesday night ordered the state to shut down for seven days starting from 10:00 pm on Thursday as part of measures to check the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

Daily Sun observed that the order had prompted a lot of residents to visit their banks to withdraw money and dash to the markets to buy their needs during the lockdown.

At a popular gasoline station on Club Road by King’s Garden, hundreds of buyers lined up with their various sizes of cylinders waiting to buy gas for their families.

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The panic rush is mostly noticed on Murtala Mohammed Way, in Bompai area, where most of the banks in the state are domiciled. Scores of customers besieged their ATMs or were seen struggling to get into their banks.

Daily Sun noticed that the customers at GTBank and Access Bank Plc on Murtala Way were admitted into the banks in batches, resulting in a traffic along the whole street.

At the popular Sabon Garri Market, there was an unprecedented rush for essential food items, ranging from meats, spaghetti, beans, noddles, corn food, garri to tubers of yams and sweet potatoes.

A housewife, Madam Angela Oluchukwu told Daily Sun that “the truth is that we don’t know the shape the lockdown would take. But if what we hear from some of these states is anything to go buy it makes sense to buy now.

“Even if there would be a black market like night market, the truth again is that you will be buying at a higher price by that the time the lockdown has come into effect,” said the woman who leaves on Sanyolu Street in the state capital.