Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has identified the activities of Boko Haram members as a potential threat to the eradication of polio in Nigeria and called for vigilance from states where there are no cases of polio.

Uduaghan made the observation today in Sapele during the 2014 First Quarter Polio Eradication/Sensitisation Campaign in Delta State.

He noted that Nigeria ranks among Afghanistan and Pakistan as countries that still have cases of polio in the world. He said that while the two countries have crises related to war, Boko Haram’s campaign of violence is hampering the total eradication of the polio virus in Nigeria.

While noting that no incident of polio has been witnessed in Delta State for the past five years, the governor called for vigilance so as to ensure that children are immunized against the dreaded disease.

“Today, there is crisis in some parts of the North, so there will be tendency that people might migrate to this part of the country, this is why we must be vigilant,” Uduaghan said, adding: “Crisis does not help anybody, we must avoid trouble, anywhere there is war, there is displacement.”

The governor urged Deltans to ensure that their environment is clean as a way of checking the spread of diseases. He charged all stakeholders to pay more attention to routine immunisation for their children.

The Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr. Joseph Otumara, in his address stated that the sensitisation campaign was a strategy aimed at improving the polio vaccination coverage of children aged between 0-59 months in the collective effort towards the eradication of the crippling Poliomyelitis infection.

Otumara said that the immunisation exercise was intended to interrupt the transmission of the polio virus and eradicate the disease, noting that polio cases has been reduced from 212 which was reported in the year 2012 to one case reported in 2014 in Nigeria.

The local government chairman, traditional rulers and operators in the health sector delivered goodwill messages at the occasion that featured the immunisation of children by Governor Uduaghan and other stakeholders.

•Photo shows Governor Uduaghan immunising a child.

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