The COVID-19 Task Force in Bauchi has said it arrested five persons caught selling and buying COVID-19 green cards.

Executive Chairman of Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, BASPHCDA, Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, disclosed this, yesterday while updating journalists on vaccination in Bauchi.

Mohammed also lamented that many of the state’s healthcare workers and academia were leading the opposition against the vaccine, saying: “It is setting back the success of the exercise. In collaboration with the Police, Army, and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, 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.

“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.”