Polio campaign to go on despite attacks  

Nigerian officials vowed to push ahead with polio vaccination campaigns on Thursday after last week’s deadly attacks on two polio clinics, while the brother of a victim also urged action.

Junior health minister Muhammad Ali Pate told officials and traditional chiefs in the northern city of Kano, where the attacks which killed at least 10 people occurred, that the government would not be deterred.

“For the cause that they were killed, helping children by protecting them from a disease that can be prevented, we will continue,” Pate, who has spearheaded Nigeria’s anti-polio efforts, told a gathering at the office for the governor of Kano state.

The younger brother of Hauwa Abdulazeez, a 50-year-old mother of seven who was one of the vaccinators killed, said her death would be in vain if polio campaigns stopped.

A polio vaccinator: 9 killed in Kano

“This should not end the eradication project,” Mairiga Abdulazeez told AFP outside the palace of the local emir, where Pate also spoke.

“My sister died serving her community and I’m proud of that, although her death is shocking and painful.”

Gunmen stormed two clinics where polio vaccination workers had gathered on February 8, killing at least 10 people.

The attacks came after a radio programme reported on claims of forced vaccinations and allegedly revived conspiracy theories about the vaccines.

Claims that polio vaccinations are used to render Muslims infertile have long spread in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, often stoked by local politicians and clerics, dealing setbacks to efforts to eradicate the crippling disease.

Two journalists and a cleric involved in the programme were granted bail on Thursday after being charged earlier this week for incitement, among other charges.

Nigeria is one of only three countries still considered to have endemic polio, along with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It is not yet clear who was responsible for the attacks at the clinics and there was no evidence linking the radio programme to the violence.

Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has carried out attacks in Kano, though gangs linked to local politics also operate.

Kano’s Deputy Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje said the state would not be discouraged by the attacks in its commitment to stamp out polio.

“This unfortunate incidence cannot deter us from our continued journey to eradicate polio not only in Kano state but in the whole country,” Ganduje said.

The state would further strengthen routine polio immunisation to speed up eradication of the crippling disease, he said.

Meanwhile, government and private donors have made some cash offers to families of the killed polio vaccinators.

The Federal Government, Kano state government and the Dangote Organizations have at different times paid condolence visit to the families and relations of the victims of last Friday’s shootings at two polio centres in Kano northwest Nigeria which left about 10 people dead while several others were wounded.

They made monetary donations to representatives of the families to the tune of N24.45 million on the whole.

Kano state government donated the sum of N500, 000 each to families of the 10 killed health workers, while N250, 000 was awarded to four others that sustained injuries to during the attack.

The state governor, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso announced this during a meeting with the family members of the victims at the Government House in Kano.

He also announced that the chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote donated N500, 000 to each of the bereaved families and N250, 000 to each of the wounded.

The Federal Government donated N1 million each to the 10 family members, with N200, 000 each for the seven injured victims.