GUNMEN have attacked two polio clinics in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, killing nine people before fleeing, police and residents say.
"Nine people were killed in two separate attacks by gunmen on (motorised) tricycles when they attacked two dispensaries where polio immunisation workers were preparing to go out for polio campaigns," police spokesman Magaji Majia said.
The attacks come after a local cleric denounced polio vaccination campaigns this week and some local radio programs repeated previous conspiracy theories about such campaigns being a foreign plot to harm Muslims.
Such conspiracy theories have long spread in parts of northern Nigeria, stoked by local politicians.
Nigeria is one of only three countries still considered to have endemic polio, alongside Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Police declined to say who they believed was behind the killings.
Extremist sect Boko Haram has carried out attacks in Kano, although gangs linked to local politics also operate.
"Six people on a tricycle pulled up outside the dispensary at 9.45am while polio immunisation workers were gathering for the day's house-to-house polio campaign," a resident near the second attack said.
"Two of the men were holding guns. They stormed into the dispensary and began shooting."
Last year, two Nigerian police guarding polio vaccination workers were killed by gunmen, though it was unclear if the attack was linked to the campaign.
Islamist extremists have carried out scores of attacks on police.
In 2003, Kano's state government suspended polio immunisations for 13 months, with the then governor saying claims on its harmful effects had to be looked into.
The suspension followed allegations by some Muslim clerics that the vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile as part of US-led plot to depopulate Africa.
Despite the resumption of polio immunisations, Kano has continued to record polio cases as many parents still reject the vaccine.
Deadly attacks linked to polio vaccination campaigns have also occurred in Pakistan.
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