COVID-19: National Security commended for busting vaccine selling syndicate

Editor of the Informer Newspaper, Andy Kankam has applauded the National Security for quickly rounding up persons involved in the stealing and sale of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

He described the act as sad and unpatriotic because, “some Ghanaians who really need the vaccine are yet to receive their doses and yet, you decide to steal the vaccines and sell them” he stated.

According to him, such people do not deserve to live amongst us as Ghanaians, he told Samuel Eshun on the Editors’ Take edition of the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy 98.9 FM.

“I commend the National Security for issuing the arrests and these culprits should be made to face the law to the fullest. It is good these unpatriotic Ghanaians were arrested”, he reiterated.

Prior to the mass vaccination exercise after the first batch of at least 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine arrived in Ghana as part of efforts for equitable global access to COVID jabs, Andy Kankam advised vaccination officers against stealing and selling them.

This warning seems to have fallen on deaf ears as three persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the stealing and sale of COVID-19 (COVISHIELD) vaccines in Ghana.

They are 37-year-old Disease Control Officer of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Stephen Dzisenu; 42-year-old Occupational Health and Safety Officer, Cosmos Allotey and a Project Assistant and a former Laboratory Technician at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Joseph Knight Gaisie.

A fourth suspect, a Disease Control Officer at the La Bawalashie Polyclinic, Lord Pabitey is now at large and the security officers are on a manhunt for him.

Dzisenu is said to have stolen 36 vials of COVIDSHIELD and while Pabitey, now at large, also allegedly stole 26 vials of COVIDSHIELD.

Allotey is said to have received the stolen COVIDSHIELD from Pabitey and Dzisenu and then allegedly administered the vaccines at a cost of GH¢200 per jab.

The three – Dzisenu, Gaisie and Allotey – have been remanded into custody by an Accra Circuit Court to reappear on April 1, 2021.

By: Joel Sanco