President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday administered Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV) on some children in his country home, Daura, Katsina State just as the Dutse Local Government Council in Jigawa, said it is targeting 111, 000 children for immunization against the wild polio virus in the forthcoming exercise, scheduled to commence September 8.

The president administered the polio vaccines in an event which took place at his residence as part of the campaign to wipe out the virus from the country by 2017.

NAN reports that the president, who did not make any comment during the exercise, was assisted by Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari and the Permanent Secretary, State Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Qabasiyyu.

Masari and the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Farouq also administered the polio vaccines on some of the children.

In remarks, Masari said that the state had not recorded a single case of polio infection in the past three years.

He expressed his administration’s determination to intensify efforts towards eradicating the virus from the state by 2017.

The governor urged parents to continue to present their children for the routine polio immunisation in their respective areas.

The state Coordinator, World Health Oganisation (WHO), Alh. Ali Yuguda said that the fight against polio was recording tremendous success globally.

He disclosed that only 37 polio cases were so far reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan this year.

Yuguda urged parents to continue to present their children for the immunisation in order to wipe out the virus completely from the country by 2017.

He reiterated the readiness of WHO to continue to support Nigeria to be polio free by 2017.

And in Jigawa, the Dutse Local Government Council on Saturday said it was targeting 111, 000 children for immunization against the wild polio virus in the forthcoming exercise, scheduled to commence Sept 8.

Information Officer in the council, Malam Ya'u Garba gave this indication while fielding questions from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse.

Garba said the children would also be immunized against the five child-killer diseases during the five-day exercise.

The spokesman said that the council had received 120, 000 doses of Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV), for the conduct of the exercise, adding that 603 ad hoc staff were expected to participate in the exercise.

He said in the last round of the exercise, 111,272 children were immunized against polio.

(NAN)

•State House photo shows President Buhari administering polio vaccine to a child . . . yesterday in Daura, Katsina State.

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