Panic greeted most primary and post primary schools in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital as children fled for their life when the rumour that some soldiers were giving vaccination infected with monkeypox spread like wild fire.
Similar incidents were reported in Anambra and Enugu States that fake army men were going round schools to forcefully vaccinate the students. This development created tension in those places as kids who took the vaccination purportedly died few days after.
Parents and guardians besieged the schools to take home their children and wards before closing hours over purported information that men dressed in army uniforms were going round schools to inject monkeypox vaccination on the pupils.
When this StraightNews reporter visited St. Peters Primary School, Mbiabong, one of the affected schools, pupils were seen running helter skelter, while parents who wore consternation on their faces scrambled for their kids.
The Headmistress of the school, who would not want her name in the media, told StraightNews that she was surprised on the unconfirmed story, stating that she was not aware of any vaccination in the school.
“I was in my office when parents started coming to ask me if such a thing happened; I told them that I was not aware and they moved into the classes to retrieve their wards. Even when I tried to stop them, they would not listen. I allowed them to go,” she said.
A pupil from the school, Uduak Etim, who also spoke with StraightNews reporter, said he was in the school farm working when he got the information that three students had died from the vaccination.
“I don’t know why they ran. I heard that people came to our school to give vaccination to three students and they died. I did not see it, though I had to also run since others were running,” he narrated.
Another pupil, Kenneth Aniedi, claimed that he saw some men on black coming to the school and he suspected them to be kidnappers.
The head teacher of Delite Nursery and Primary school in Ifa Atai, who also preferred anonymity, dismissed it as only a fake rumour making the rounds, stating that she only allowed the kids left the schools because the parents made the demand.
“I did not just allow them go. I gathered them, prayed and closed properly before allowing them to go with their parents. You know if anything happens to them, we will be blamed for it, so it is better we allowed them to go,” she explained.
Asked what measures had been put in place to ensure that those kids return to school the following day, the head teacher said she announced to the pupils that the quandary was just for today and that she instructed them to report to school tomorrow.
“I have reported the case to the proprietor of the school and he has called the commissioner of police to provide adequate security for the pupils. We are sure there will be no trouble at all,” she concluded.
Meanwhile, the state commissioner for information and strategy, Mr Charles Udoh, while speaking on a private radio station, Planet FM, dismissed the rumour as mere speculation and urged the people to resist and report any unauthorized vaccination in the state.
“There is no truth in the speculation that school children are forced to be immunized. Any act as such is illegal, unauthorized and not from the government, therefore, anyone found doing so, should be resisted and reported to the security agents,” he said.