The Lagos government has tasked people claiming that some of the 88 inoculation centres are receiving bribes to sell vaccines to show their evidence.
This was revealed yesterday by the State Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso.
Omotoso also denied that the state had a separate portal for the registration.
The commissioner told the correspondent that he challenged anyone with the proof that the COVID-19 vaccine was being sold to come forward.
The state government’s refutal followed a deluge of allegations on social media where some Twitter users alleged on Thursday that the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was being sold in Lagos.
A Twitter user, @irizzzy alleged that the vaccine was being sold for N100,000, while @ulxma said she witnessed the vaccine being sold at Ikate Primary Health Centre.
@irizzzy wrote, “100k for a vaccine? Nigeria is gone.”
Another user, @ulxma tweeted, “I think the people who dragged that lady for saying that Nigerian health centres are selling the vaccine owe her a huge apology. I’m presently at a health centre in Ikate and people are coming with SUVs and having vaccine sold to them before our very eyes. I’m pissed!”
Omotoso, however, debunked the claims insisting that Lagos has been opened in its dealing.
“Lagos is still leading other states in the vaccination drive. We have vaccinated over 88,000 people now. Many other states have yet to start. There are hitches here and there, but not the type that cannot be surmounted. Most of the problems we have come from the slowness of the server of the portal and the network issues. Such problems have been causing congestion at the vaccination centres.
“The people that are entitled to it are well spelt out; frontline workers, who could even be drivers of ambulances, doctors, nurses, laboratory attendants, policemen, journalists and the military people. People have said that foreigners are being given preferential treatment because they have been able to bribe officials. That is wrong. You can be a foreigner and be a frontline worker.
“Lagos has no portal apart from the one that the Federal Government has created and we are not ready to follow any other protocol apart from the one from the Federal Government. It could be a kind of misunderstanding that must have been sorted out now,” he said.
