Cross River DG: Why my staff fraternise with militants

Director-General of Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Janet Ekpenyong, says her staff befriends militants in the state.

She said this at the official flag-off of outbreak response of Round Two (OBR 2) campaign in Calabar, the state capital.

Ekpenyong said her staff makes friends with the gunmen in order to have access to their families in the creeks and riverine areas and administer polio vaccines to their children and others.

She said 900 children are to be vaccinated against polio disease, so that they can grow up to form a healthy population.

“We go to the extent of fraternising with the militants to enable us administer Polio vaccines to children in the riverine communities. We are asking all parents to notify us of any child 15 years and below with signs of paralyses.

“We are leveraging on the campaign to see that any child less than 15 years that shows signs of paralysis of lower limbs, should please report to appropriate quarters. To tell you how committed we are in our campaign to have a healthy population in time to come,” she said.

Chairman of women medical doctors in the state, Vivian Mesembe Otu, stated that 50 per cent of children in the state have been vaccinated, revealing that statistics available shows that lot of children were yet to be gt the polio vaccine.

Courtesy Daily Trust