From Sani Babadoko, in Kaduna

The Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) has called on the federal government to immediately suspend the use of oral polio vaccine because of evidence that it contained anti-fertility agents.

Addressing a press conference in Kaduna on several national issues on Saturday, SCSN President, Dr. Ibrahim Datti Ahmed said the vaccination should be suspended until it is fully investigated by the competent authorities and found to be safe.

He said investigations by the SCSN shows that the government of the United States government has as a national policy promoted the depopulation of Third World and Muslim countries since 1975 and that recently declas-sified US documents showed that the World Health Organi-sation (WHO) had introd-uced human chorionic genad-otropin (HCG), a naturally occurring hormone essential for maintaining pregnancy in women, through massive anti-tetanus health camp-aigns in Nicaragua, Mexico, Philippines, Nigeria and Tanzania.

"Furthermore, WHO has been actively involved for more than 20 years in the development of anti-fertility vaccines using HCG tied to tetanus toxoid as a carrier", Dr. Datti said adding that other agencies collaborating with WHO in this regard are UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), UNPP, NIH and UNICEF, the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation.

He said SCSN was not opposed to any programme for the eradication of all childhood and other communicable diseases including polio, but "the council harbours strong reservations on the safety of our population not only because of our recent experience in the Pfizer scandal, when our people were used as guinea pigs with the approval of the federal ministry of health and the approval of all the relevant UN agencies."

He said statistics showed that only 140 cases of polio were recorded since 2002, and that actual killers of Nigerian children were malaria, mea-sles, meningitis, cholera and typhoid but for unfathomable reasons billions of naira and millions of dollars are spent on polio prevention alone.

"If the donor agencies are sincere, they should help the country in combating the more dangerous killer diseases such as malaria, measles, meningitis, cholera and typhoid fever while investigations into the polio vaccines are going on," Dr. Datti said.

Dr. Datti who was accompanied by SCSN Secretary, Malam Nafiu Baba-Ahmed, vice chairman, Sheikh Yakubu Musa from Nsukka and Sheikh Mohammed Auwal from Ebonyi State also spoke about the marginalisation of Muslims in the recent ministerial and other federal appointments.

"The council wishes to state categorically that this situation, which defies logic and is in complete disregard to the religious make-up of Nigeria and its laws, is unacceptable to Muslims and all democrats and must therefore be reversed," the NCSN president declared.