Police in Hoima have arrested a cleaner at Butema Health Centre III, and two of his accomplices, for selling off COVID-19 vaccination cards at 50.000 shillings.  

The suspects Bigirwa Ivan,34, a cleaner at Butema Health Centre III, Enyong Emmanuel a Health Assistant and Aheebwa Rhoda the in-charge Butema Health centre III are being held on charges of theft, forgery and utterance falsified.

Fred Enanga the Uganda Police Spokesperson says the suspects were busted after a tip off from locals that the trio was selling genuine vaccination cards to unvaccinated people within Hoima district. 

Enanga says police laid a trap for the suspects and it was discovered that they would then insert names, dates and vaccination dates on the cards of their customers before receiving hard cash .  

“A trap was set-up Upon interrogation, Bigirwa(the cleaner) admitted to selling genuine vaccination cards to unvaccinated people. He further revealed his accomplices who supplied him with the vaccination cards.”Enanga explained   

Enanga further says that police have also launched investigations into reports of fake vaccination cards being sold at Naser road in Kampala.

“We are also at a national level taking interest into concerns surrounding the manufacturing and forgery of COVID-19 vaccination cards with electronic devices especially along Nasser road and other places. The perpetrators have gone underground, but we shall definitely round them up.”he said

Enanga has also warned those found with fake or falsified COVID-19 vaccination cards to know that they are in serious breach of the COVID-19 protocols and must be prepared to face serious punishments for conspiracy, forgery, utterance of false documents and for negligent acts likely to cause the spread of an infectious disease.

“For those who are not aware, all Ministry of Health vaccination cards are stored in the database, against which we shall be conducting proof of vaccination from the digital vaccine verification database.”Enanga said

Compiled by Minah Nalule