Governors distance selves from Yahaya Bello’s claim on COVID-19 vaccines

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has dismissed the claim of Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi, that COVID-19 vaccines are “meant to kill”.

Bello, who has repeatedly disregarded COVID-19 protocol and denied the existence of the virus, had told a crowd in a viral video to reject the vaccines.

“Vaccines are being produced in less than one year of COVID-19. There is no vaccine yet for HIV, malaria, cancer, headache and for several other diseases that are killing us. They want to use the (COVID-19) vaccines to introduce the disease that will kill you and us. God forbid,” the governor had said without verifiable evidence.

But Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti state who doubles as the NGF chairman, in a statement after the forum’s first virtual meeting for 2021 on Thursday, described Bello’s comment as an “ill-fated pronouncement”.

“On the ill-fated pronouncement made by a member of the forum regarding the COVID-19 vaccine in a national daily, the forum totally and categorically dissociated itself from the statement,” the statement reads.

“The forum emphasised that it will continue to be informed and guided by science and will ensure that every decision it takes will help retains public and professional trust and is not compromised by conflicts of interest.”

The NGF also announced that a team of experts led by Oyewale Tomori, professor of virology, has been set up to “advise the state governors on the procurement and administration of coronavirus vaccines in the country”.

The federal government had announced that the country is expecting the first batch of 100,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by the end of January.