Throwback Photos – Rumour about Military Men in Schools with Deadly Vaccines
Throwback Photos – Rumour about Military Men in Schools with Deadly Vaccines. I just feel like publishing these throwback photos. Who remembers that year when the rumor spread in the East that the Nigerian Military Men were in Schools with Monkey-pox And Ebola Killing Vaccinations which they wanted to inject the children?
Nigerians, especially those living in the East will never forget this date when the false rumor spread that Army officers are going to schools to inject the children with ebola fluid. This rumor spread like wildfire. See the throwback photos.
ATTENTION:
12th of October, 2017 is a date that will not be forgotten in a haste in some parts of Igbo-speaking states in Nigeria. I remembered that fateful day. It began as a play and before we could say jerk, it boomed as an inferno boosted with fuel. When I knew it was serious was when I was dragging the school gate with a policeman whose kids were pupils in the same school.
I told myself that if a policeman thought that his children are no longer safe in the school at the moment, why should I leave my own kids? I believe they should have the right information. Seeing the fear in the man’s face, I alerted others.
It was also a very sad event because parents lost their lives in the unguarded rumor fueled “running the race for safety”. Many school children were trampled in stampedes and died in the process. Parents both men and women proved the ruggedness in them by going the extra mile in securing and retrieving their children from schools.
I have tried to follow this case to know where exactly the rumor emanated from. I was told it began in Imo State. Later, I was made to understand that it began in Ozubulu, Anambra State.
It was during the period of the Python dance in Aba, Abia State by the Nigerian Army. At that time too, Ebola and the Monkeypox killing diseases were threatening the lives of Nigerian citizens. These incidents combined were enough to put fear in the lives of Nigerian citizens.
The rumor spread through a single phone call from a PTA Chairman of a school who was called by a school teacher, informing him about a rumor she heard concerning groups of Nigerian Army who would be coming to the school on the said day to vaccinate the children. It was carried in the rumor that the vaccination was contaminated with ebola and monkeypox serum. When the man was leaving from his office to the said school, he put out calls to his family members telling them the development and his whereabouts.
The other PTA members made calls too and alerted their various families before going to the said school. That was how the rumor spread.
The Nigerian Army debunked the news as a rumor. There was actually no single Army personnel found in the schools or around any school premises on that very day. The security personnel whom I saw around were those who came to retrieve their kids from school for the fear of the rumor.
One major lesson I learned from this melodrama is that parents, especially Igbo parents do not joke with their children. They will go the extra mile when it calls for giving protection to their kids.
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