Presidential Aspirant, Bello, Rejects Vaccination, Says Kogi People Aren’t “Guinea Pigs”

Nigeria on Friday, commenced its vaccination against the lethal covid-19 infection, but Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, who has declared his presidential ambition for the 2023 elections, said he won’t receive the vaccine even as other governors were expected to receive shots of the AstraZeneca/Oxford covid-19 vaccines in the coming days.

Bello said this on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme.

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

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

Bello on Friday, 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 the ground and we have united Kogi State today not COVID-19.

“COVID-19 is just a minute aspect of what we are treating or handling in Kogi State; there have been outbreaks of Lassa Fever and Yellow Fever and those were handled without making noise about it.

“The last Yellow Fever (outbreak), we vaccinated our people against Yellow Fever, we encouraged them, we educated them and they felt the impact…If the Federal Government is gracious enough and give us COVID-19 vaccines, we will equally sensitise our people, people who wish to come and take can come and take but I am not going to subject the people of Kogi State to vaccines or vaccination and I will not make them the guinea pigs.

The governor continued that, “Mr President is the leader of this country. I respect him so much; 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 percent healthy…I won’t take any vaccine," Bello said.