A Nigerian senator, Ben Murray-Bruce, has mocked the governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, for saying that the outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis in the country was God’s way of punishing the people for their sins.

Three hundred and thirty-six people have so far died of meningitis across Nigeria since the disease broke out few days ago, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control said on Tuesday.

In Zamfara State alone, the number of people suspected to have died from the disease has risen to 215.

Governor Yari had said on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, that “What we used to know as far as meningitis is concerned is the Type A virus. The World Health Organisation, WHO, has carried out vaccinations against this Type A virus not just in Zamfara, but many other states.”

“However, because people refused to stop their nefarious activities, God now decided to send Type C virus, which has no vaccination.

“People have turned away from God and he has promised that ‘if you do anyhow, you see anyhow’ that is just the cause of this outbreak as far as I am concerned.

“There is no way fornication will be so rampant and God will not send a disease that cannot be cured,” Mr. Yari said.

Mr. Murray-Bruce, who represents Bayelsa East Senatorial District, Bayelsa State, disagreed with the governor.

“Meningitis is caused by bacteria, not sin,” the senator tweeted on Wednesday. “If sin caused meningitis, most of us politicians will get it, but it’s the poor who suffer it most.

“The real sin causing meningitis is the sin of mismanaging the money budgeted to cure and prevent a disease that regularly affects Nigerians,” the 61-year-old senator said.