Five arrested for Covid-19 green card racketeering in Bauchi

Green card racketeering coupled with the negative effects of social media messages have been identified as the major setbacks in the smooth administration of the COVID-19 vaccine in Bauchi State.

Consequently, the Security and Vigilance Community of the COVID-19 Taskforce comprising representatives from all the security agencies operating in the state have arrested five people for buying the cards.

The disclosure was made by the Executive Chairman of Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BASPHCDA), Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, while briefing Journalists on the uptake of the vaccination in his office.

The Executive Chairman was speaking when COVID-19 Champions, CITAD supported NGO, led by Halima Ibrahim visited the Agency to seek for permission to embark on rural enlightenment campaign about COVID-19 vaccine misconceptions.

Rilwanu Mohammed lamented that many of the state’s health workers and academia are leading in the resistance of the vaccine, a development setting back the exercise.

He disclosed that, “In collaboration with the Police, Army and ICPC, we have been able to arrest some people who were buying the vaccine cards without taking the injection. They are now with the security agencies, undergoing investigations.

He also said that, “Many people who shunned the jab when flagged off by the Governor, his Deputy and House of Assembly Speaker, later contracted the virus. Some people, who got vaccinated and felt the mild side effects of the vaccine, were giving others negative narratives. Some were placing metal and other objects on the spot of the jab to get people to reject it”.

“We carried out a mass campaign on social media and moved to the rural areas for enlightenment,” he added.

Read also: Bauchi gov, Mohammed, insists north must produce president in 2023

He also said the social media had been identified as the main cause of setback for the exercise through unfounded negative insinuations against the efficacious nature of the vaccines.

A visibly disturbed Rilwanu Mohammed said that, “the community, the medical and the University community, the Professors and others are the worst in rejection of the vaccine. One of the things that is fueling the trouble is the social media. It is a stumbling block to achieving the aim of the vaccination”.

The Executive Chairman of BASPHCDA also said that, “this is not new to us, we faced similar problems during the polio campaign from people we tag ‘the evil doers of vaccination’, they are there everywhere, in fact I was attacked twice, but we endured it and today, we are polio free as we were able to kick polio out of the country”.

“These vaccines were approved for emergency use, about 35 different types of them by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency purposes, each country is free to produce its own but they have to look at the safety and efficiency because initially, so many people came up with their theories and there are obstacles that they want to block these vaccines”, he added.

According to him, “their major campaign is that the vaccine is for reducing fertility in order to reduce population. The second one is that, there is a fear that these vaccines will even kill a person within 2 years, the third one is the demonstration of using metal to stick to the point of the vaccination in order to scare people”.

Rilwanu Mohammed added that, “The main thing causing our own problems is some of the reactions of the vaccines most especially, mild reactions forgetting that each drug has its reaction because of the composition of the body, there is antigen, antibody reaction, mild weakness, mild fever when one takes a chemical like this. There is fighting between the immunity and the body itself to take care of the person”.

By Yemi Kanji, Bauchi

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