This was disclosed by the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, in Abuja on Tuesday, September 21.
Shuaib who spoke at the weekly press briefing of the agency said the NPHCDA have received reports of illegal sale of COVID-19 vaccine cards to those who where not vaccinated with any of the available vaccines.
He said: “Once those people involved in the vaccine card racketeering are apprehended, they would be charged to court and the civil service rules would be implemented and that goes both ways for both the people buying and those selling.”
“Possession of vaccination cards without receiving the vaccines is criminal and punishable by law. The NPHCDA enjoins the general public to immediately report any suspected cases of buying and selling of COVID-19 vaccination cards without receiving the vaccines to the nearest law enforcement agency or the NPHCDA,” Shuaib added.
Tracking Cards Issued to Individuals Against Codes on Used Vaccines
In order to curb this criminal act, Shuaib added that the Federal Government is matching numbers on the cards and those on the vaccine vials to ensure that the number of used vaccines match the numbers of used cards.
According to him, any facility found wanting or where discrepancies are recorded, the staff and heads of that particular facility would be held responsible.
Shuaib said: “If you see something, you say something; it is criminal, dubious, it is not smart and should be discouraged.”
FCT Primary Health Care Board Reacts
Also speaking, the acting executive secretary of the Federal Capital Territory, Primary health Care Board, Iwot Ndaeyo, said the FCT Administration had addressed the issue of card buying.
Ndaeyo said the administration has also put in place certain measures to ensure that such incident does not occur again.
“We have zero tolerance to corruption and we want everything to be transparent, we open our books are we have our number on our flyers and everywhere for Nigerians to report any of such activities,” Ndaeyo said.
He also promised that the FCTA would continue to update Nigerians on this matter and successes recorded to apprehend those responsible.
Meanwhile, Lafiya360 had reported that the Nigerian government had assured its citizens that all the COVID-19 vaccines approved for use across the country are recognised by the government of the United Kingdom.
The assurance by the Nigerian government followed apprehension over the new travel advisory released by the UK government.
The government of UK in its new advisory had announced that there would be classification of countries from green, amber and red to just red and green list.
According to the new travel advisory, there is the possibility of countries on the amber divide to either fall under green or red list.
However, the executive director of the NPHCDA assured that the Federal Government has had discussions with officials of the UK government and that without prejudice to the information yet to be released, they have been assured that Nigeria will maintain the status quo.