Finally, Kogi state begins COVID-19 vaccination

The Kogi State government has finally commenced the vaccination of residents against COVID-19 in the state.

This comes one month after the Nigerian government launched the exercise with the vaccination of four front-line healthcare workers in Abuja on March 5, 2021.

Governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, had in March, insisted that he won’t take COVID-19 vaccine, noting that he’s hale and healthy and has no reason to do so.

“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.”, NewsWireNGR recalls the Governor as saying.

Kogi is the last of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to commence the vaccination exercise – it is however not clear if the Governor will renege on his words and will not be taking the vaccine.

Speaking at an event to flag-off of the exercise on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Health in Kogi, Haruna Saka, assured the residents that nobody would be deprived of taking the vaccine jab.

He stated that the state government has resolved not to compel any individual in Kogi to take the vaccine, stressing that it would only be administered at individual’s request.

The commissioner disclosed that the state government received about 16,900 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, adding that another batch of 16,900 doses were expected to be delivered to the state in a couple of weeks.

He commended the state governor, Yahaya Bello, for his proactive measures towards protecting the lives of the people and thanked him for making the vaccines available to people of the state.

The event was attended by some top government officials in the state who took the vaccine jabs.

The Kogi State government took delivery of the first set of 16,900 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday night.