By Lawal Dogara, Kaduna

A media group, Journalists Against Polio (JAP) has raised alarm over the increasing incidence of polio in the Northern parts of the country.

JAP said Kaduna and Zamfara states recorded 44 and 68 cases of polio respectively, since the beginning of this year while Nigeria unfortunately occupied the top of the ladder in the whole world, accounting for 88 per cent of the occurrence of the child-killer disease. India, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the other three countries with high prevalence of polio in the world.

Speaking in an interview with Nigerian Newsday in Kaduna, JAP chairman, Mr. Kunle Sanni, said the current high occurrence of polio posed a serious threat to the Nigeria nation and was therefore unacceptable.

He added that governments at the council level should be held responsible for the situation, as they have continued to pay mere lip service to their constitutional role of providing qualitative primary healthcare to the people at the grassroots.

According to him of the four countries with endemic cases globally, Nigeria ranks the highest with a total number of 578 cases accounting for 88 per cent of cases in the whole world.

Kaduna State recorded 44 cases of polio this year while Kano State has 200 cases. Recently, 68 children were crippled in Zamfara State because of polio infection.

According to him, "this is totally unacceptable in view of the threat this poses to our nation at this crucial moment of our national history. We must stop paying lip service to matters of health. This is disheartening to note that local government councils, whose constitutional role is the provision of qualitative primary health care to the people at the grassroots, have failed in this regard.

"However, there are some exceptional cases where efforts and commitments of local government officials are enviable and must be acknowledged. Of particular mention is Giwa, Soba and Chikun local government areas in Kaduna State," he said.

The group therefore urged local councils across the country, particularly those in the North where the incidence of polio had been in the increase to redouble their efforts at eradicating the disease.