This comes one month after the Nigerian government launched the exercise with the vaccination of four frontline healthcare workers in Abuja on March 5, 2021.

Kogi is the last of the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to commence the vaccination exercise.

Speaking at an event to flag-off of the exercise on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Health in Kogi, Haruna Saka, assured the residents that nobody would be deprived of taking the vaccine jab.

He stated that the state government has resolved not to compel any individual in Kogi to take the vaccine, stressing that it would only be administered at individual’s request.

The commissioner disclosed that the state government received about 16,900 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, adding that another batch of 16,900 doses were expected to be delivered to the state in a couple of weeks.

He commended the state governor, Yahaya Bello, for his proactive measures towards protecting the lives of the people and thanked him for making the vaccines available to people of the state.

The event was attended by some top government officials in the state who took the vaccine jabs.

Among those who received the vaccine was Dr Abubakar Yakubu, the Executive Director of Kogi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KSPHCDA).

The Kogi State government took delivery of the first set of 16,900 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday night.

Dr Yakubu led a team of officials of KSPHCDA and the Kogi State Ministry of Health to receive the vaccines at the National Programme on Immunisation Unit of the State Central Medical Store in Lokoja, the state capital.