Nigeria consoles families of slain polio vaccinators with cash gifts

MADUABUCHI NMERIBEH/Kano

Nigeria’s government has donated N3 million each to family members of the 10 health workers that were assassinated in February, 2013, during a Polio immunization exercise in Kano, northwest Nigeria.

Presenting cheques to the bereaved families at Government House, Kano, on behalf of the Federal government, Governor Kwankwaso explained that the donation was to augment what the state government and Alhaji Aliko Dangote gave to them shortly after the incident.

The governor eulogized the slain health workers, describing them as patriots who sacrificed their lives in trying to protect communities in the state from the menace of Polio.

He assured that the wicked attack on the health workers will not stop the government from its anti-Polio campaign, appealing to all well-meaning citizens of Kano to joins hands with government to rid the state of Polio and other vaccine preventable diseases.

Kwankwaso urged the bereaved families to take solace in the fact that their bread winners died in the service of humanity. He said the financial assistance given to them was not compensation but consolation, urging them to make the best use of it.

On the recent discovery of Polio cases in a few local government areas of the state, Kwankwaso attributed it to the laxity of some health officials and traditional rulers handling routine immunization, promising that his administration will do everything possible to reverse the trend.