We are not sure if we’ll take COVID-19 vaccine — Kogi senators, reps

Serving senators and members of the House of Representatives from Kogi State have said they have not made up their minds on whether to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or not.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, took his own vaccination on Tuesday and announced a two-week schedule for other senators to have the vaccine.

But speaking with our correspondent on behalf of his colleagues on Friday, the leader of the Kogi lawmakers’ forum in the National Assembly, Smart Adeyemi, said the federal legislators from the state had yet to take a decision on the matter.

Adeyemi, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, said all the 12 National Assembly members from the state were solidly behind the governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who has been insistent that there is no COVID-19 in the state.

He said the only consideration that could make them go for the vaccination would be to prevent them from infecting their constituents in the state in the event that they travelled home.

The senator said, “The Kogi State legislators in the National Assembly have not thought of taking the vaccines yet, but if ever we will take it at all, it is because we are in Abuja where there is COVID-19 but there is no COVID in our state.”

He cautioned those who were castigating the governor for claiming that the disease was not affecting his people in the state.

Adeyemi said, “I don’t know the magic in Kogi State because the coronavirus is not killing our people. If it is leading to deaths in the state, I would be the first person to cry out and disagree with our governor but our people are not dying and they are not falling ill.

“I agree with our governor that there is no COVID-19 in Kogi State. If the disease is there, people would have been dying. It appears COVID-19 is afraid of the Kogi people. To a large extent, we are convinced that our governor knows what he is doing and saying.”

The senator added that even Ministry of Health officials told him that they did not know what was happening in Kogi that was keeping people from dying from COVID-19.

“We cannot be killing our people just to justify that the disease is real. We are not just saying yes to our governor but we are also saying yes to him because nobody has died of the disease.

“We cannot disagree with our governor. How do we disagree with a man who maintains a position and stands by it and you don’t have any contrary fact to fault him? Our people are not dying and we should not be hypocritical about it.

“Governor Bello is a highly courageous person. He takes a position the moment he knows what he is doing is in the best interest of the people. If our people are dying, we would have spoken against it,” Adeyemi said.

According to him, nobody should love Kogi more than the indigenes, including the governor and elected lawmakers.

“If the people are dying, we will shout but we are not talking because our people are not falling sick and we are not recording deaths as a result of COVID-19. Only the aged are dying of age-related ailments,” the senator added. (Sunday PUNCH)