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Kogi Governor Collected COVID-19 Palliatives; He Must Also Receive Vaccine— Dino Melaye

Bello had stated that the COVID-19 virus was not the business of people in his state, adding that they had “more pertinent” issues to tackle.

A former Kogi State senator, Dino Melaye, has stated that the Kogi State Government, led by Governor Yahaya Bello, has no reason not to collect the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines since it collected COVID-19 palliatives and money from the Nigerian government.

Melaye insisted that since the Kogi State government collected palliatives and money from the Nigerian government, it should do the same with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

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The National Health Care Development Agency, the lead agency in the Federal Ministry of Health monitoring the distribution of vaccines to states, had left out Kogi State from the distribution of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

NPHCDA had explained that the state was left out of the arrangement due to the lack of a cold-chain store in the state for the vaccines.

Reacting, Melaye wondered why the state government decided to push aside the COVID-19 vaccines.

In a tweet, the former lawmaker said, “Kogi Government collected COVID-19 money and palliative from the Federal Government and still has the guts to say no COVID-19 in Kogi State. Since you collected money and palliative, una must collect vaccines too.”

Despite the severity of COVID-19, the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello has continued to downplay the severity of the virus.

On March 6, Bello had stated that the COVID-19 virus was not the business of people in his state, adding that they had “more pertinent” issues to tackle.

“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. Insecurity that we met, we’ve tackled it and several others. Disunity, we met it on the ground and we have united Kogi State, not COVID-19.

“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. If the Federal Government is gracious enough and gives us COVID-19 vaccine, we will equally sensitise our people, who wish to take it to come forward and take the vaccine,” he had said.