25th March, 2021
The Lagos State Government on Thursday said over 100,000 Lagosians have received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.
The government also said it would never compromise on the vaccination protocols rolled out by the Federal Government.
There have been allegations, such as: the State deploying its own portal to register people; diversification of vaccine; and sale of vaccine.
Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who paid an unscheduled visit to some vaccination centres, said over 100,000 people have been vaccinated since the exercise started.
Abayomi and his Information and Strategy counterpart, Mr Gbenga Omotoso visited the vaccination centers located inside the Police Hospital, Falomo and the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba to inspect activities at the vaccination sites.
The visit, according to Abayomi, was geared towards getting a firsthand view of the process at the sites, ascertaining the allegations and determining whether activities at the sites were in line with government’s protocol and best practices.
While noting that unscheduled visits to vaccination sites were part of the State government’s monitoring and compliance strategy to ensure a seamless vaccination, the Commissioner said top officials of the Ministry and independent assessors had been going round to ensure compliance to vaccination protocols.
Speaking after monitoring activities at the vaccination site located inside the Police Hospital, Falomo, Abayomi disclosed that the visit was to verify the allegations of malpractices at the site and ensure that vaccination protocols were strictly implemented.
“This is Falomo Police medical facility, which has been in the press recently. This is an unscheduled visit and they did not know we were coming. We do this all the time; we pay unscheduled visits to our facilities without informing the management in order to find out firsthand and real time how things are in the facilities.
“The Commissioner of Police in charge of this facility is not aware we are coming and this is deliberate in order for us to find out if there is any truth in the allegations that have been made against the centre, although we have done our investigation,” he said.
Responding to the allegation of malpractices, the Commissioner of Police in Charge of the Hospital, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, denied it all and challenged anyone with evidence of malpractices to come forward with it.
He said: “The Lagos State Government has stated clearly the categories of people that are qualified for vaccination in the first phase of the exercise. Before you can come into this facility, you must qualify for the vaccination and if you see the notice at the entrance of our facility, there is a notice listing the categories of people to be vaccinated and these are the groups of people we grant admission here.
“Anybody can make allegations, but anybody making allegations of thugs at our gate should come and substantiate the allegation. We at Falomo have continued to insist on strict adherence to the guidelines given by the state government.
“Nobody can collect money here; the allegation is baseless. Anybody who is alleging that somebody is collecting money should come forward with evidence.”
Abayomi also debunked the allegation of vaccine sales at any of the 88 vaccination sites, stating that the allegation at the Ikate vaccination site is “untrue and baseless”.
He explained that COVID vaccination protocols were strictly monitored to ensure accountability of every unit of the vaccine received by the State, adding that every unit administered on citizens is accounted for at every stage of the process.
Abayomi noted that every unit of vaccine administered tallies with the vaccination card and the barcode on the vaccination card as part of the quality assurance and accountability framework put in place.
He stated that it is difficult and near impossible for any unit of vaccine to be sold without being detected.
“This why is vaccinators are mandated to return every unit vaccine vial after use to us for proper audit; we then destroy the vial ourselves after proper audit has been taken and every vial accounted for”, he said.
The Commissioner, while imploring citizens to desist from making unsubstantiated allegations and comments about the vaccination, challenged anyone with evidence of corrupt practices to come forward with it.