Police arrest 102 persons for refusing polio vaccines in Niger September 17, 2013

No fewer than 102 persons have been arrested in Niger for refusing to allow their children receive the polio vaccines, the Director of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Shehu Yabagi, has said Yabagi told the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) on Tuesday in Minna that the arrests were made by the police in the last two years.
He said that the police were invited by the agency to effect the arrest as part of measures to enforce the law which prohibited rejection of the vaccine.
Yabagi said some of the suspects had been arraigned in various courts, while ‘’ some have been fined for their action and others served various jai terms to serve as deterrent to others".
He said the agency would continue to work hard to ensure that polio was kicked out of the state through advocacy and enforcement of the various laws enacted by the state government.
Yabagi said the state government had also sent another bill to the State House of Assembly to make it criminal for any preacher to preach against the acceptance of the polio vaccines.
The proposed bill, he said, would make provision for fine or jail term on conviction.
He said that traditional rulers and religious leaders had been sufficiently mobilised to ensure the acceptance of the polio vaccines by parents and guardian for their wards.
He stressed that the vaccine would protect the children against the scourge of polio and its attendant negative consequences for the victims and their families.
Yabagi said the agency had embarked on a cross border immunisation to halt further transmission of the disease in the state, adding: ‘’we have the last reported case of wild polio virus in 2012."
He commended the various stakeholders for their cooperation and assistance to the agency and urged parents to allow their wards to be immunised against the disease.