A Dedicated fighter for Government Accountability & Justice and Human Rights Journalist, Jumu’ah Abiodun, on Friday chided Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, over his comment on COVID-19 vaccine.

In a video that trended recently, Bello while addressing a crowd was heard discouraging the use of COVID-19 vaccine.

He said: “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.”

Yahaya Bello concluded: “If they say they are taking the vaccines in the public, allow them take their vaccines. Don’t say I said you should not take it but if you want to take it open your eyes before you take the vaccines.”

But faulting Bello’s comment on the pandemic via his Twitter handle, Jumu’ah said the Governor knew nothing about science. He tweeted:

“To be sincere, I still don't understand why a leader, a governor for that matter would hold a microphone at a public function and say such erroneous, unguided statement on the pandemic that has killed more than 1,400 people in Nigeria and over 2 million globally in less than eleven months.”

“With due respect, Governor Yahaya Bello needs to be educated on the pandemic that’s ravaging the world, most especially from some of us that survived the novel virus. I’m ready to offer my service for him and his cabinet, to give them a tutorial on the pandemic.”

The public affairs analyst also took a swipe at the members of Kogi State House of Assembly for endorsing Yahaya Bello for 2023 presidency. “This shows the height of irresponsible on the part of the Assembly for endorsing a Governor who knows nothing about science for the 2023 presidency,” he tweeted.

“It took Mallam Bello, his cabinet and his rubber stamp Assembly months to admit a single case of COVID-19 in their state last year, despite NCDC confirmed numerous cases earlier in The Confluence State.”

He concluded: “Thank God, he’s saying this now, we now know where we are going, in fact, Yahaya Bello as President will be a disaster for this country than Donald Trump was for the United States, they both ignored the science and experts on COVID-19.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) on Thursday also dissociated itself from the unguided statement by Yahaya Bello about coronavirus conspiracy theories. “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, emphasising that the Forum will continue to be informed and guided by science and will ensure that every decision it takes retains public and professional trust and is not compromised by conflicts of interest.”

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