UMAR MUHAMMED and Ted Odogwu
Some Fulani herdsmen in Agyaragu, Jenkwe Community Development Area, Nasarawa State, on Saturday, accused the state Social Mobilisation Technical Committee on Polio Eradication of marginalising their children.
The Hardo of Fulani, Mr. Usman Abdullahi, made the accusation during a sensitisation meeting in Lafia with heads of Fulani herdsmen across the 13 local government areas and 18 development areas organised by the SMTC.
Abdullahi said, “Our people have been neglected. The health workers in the state don’t reach out to us to find out whether our children have been immunised or not. All they do is move in clusters within the state. The worst part is that they don’t even ask us whether we know that such a programme has been going on in the state.
“Why will polio be eradicated in the state if the health workers employed by the state government to do their jobs diligently are not living up to expectation? They only move within the state and forget about us who live in the bush because we are not important and illiterate.”
Reacting to the allegations in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH, the state chairman Social Mobilisation Technical Committee on Polio Eradication in Nigeria, Mr. Allahnana Attah, said in some areas visited by the committee, Fulani herdsmen rejected immunisation of their children.
Attah, who is also the Director of Information at the state Ministry of Information, explained that the tour was carried out to educate the Fulani herdsmen living in remote areas of the state ahead of the third round of the immunisation exercise slated for March 25 to 28 in the state.
Meanwhile, the Kano State Government has increased the number of children targeted for polio immunisation from 3.2 million to over 3.5 million, following the recently concluded February round of Immunisation Plus Days in the state.
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