“I won’t take any vaccine” – Governor Yahaya Bello has said Kogi state people are not “guinea pigs”

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has on Friday, said he won’t receive the vaccine even as his colleagues are expected to receive shots of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines in the coming days.

Bello spoke on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme..

He also said there was nothing medically wrong with him and he won’t allow the people of the state to be used as “guinea pigs”.

Nigeria had on Tuesday received about four million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine shipped into the country through the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari, and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as well as some governors are also expected to receive shots of the vaccines on Saturday to dissipate vaccine hesitancy amongst Nigerians.

The Kogi governor said, “COVID-19 is not our business in Kogi State. We have more pertinent issues and more pertinent matters that we are attending to in Kogi State. Insecurity we met, we’ve tackled it and several others. Disunity we met on ground and we have united Kogi State today not COVID-19.

“COVID-19 is not our business in Kogi state. We have more prominent issues, more pertinent issues, more serious matters that we are attending to in Kogi state,” he said.

“COVID-19 is just a minute aspect of what we’re treating in Kogi state or handling in Kogi state. There have been outbreaks of Lassa Fever, Yellow Fever — those we handled without making noise about it.”

He noted that if the federal government makes vaccine available to the state, he will ensure that those who wanted it come forward and get vaccinated.

Bello, however, said he doesn’t need the vaccine as he is healthy.

Bello said, “Mr President is the leader of this country. I respect him so high; all of us respect him so much. We love him and he is leading by example. If he needs to take the vaccines and he takes it, it is a welcome development.

“As far as I am concerned, I as a person, I don’t need to take vaccines. There is nothing wrong with me, I am hale and hearty. I am 100 per cent healthy…I won’t take any vaccine.”