Tomori: Some Nigerians who travelled with fake COVID results tested positive abroad

Oyewale Tomori, a professor of virology, says a good number of Nigerians who travelled in the last five months tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival at their destinations abroad.

He said most of the travellers had earlier tested “negative’’ before leaving Nigeria.

Tomori was recently appointed as a member of the WHO technical advisory group on COVID-19 vaccine composition.

Speaking on Thursday in Oyo state, he said the high number of positive results recorded by international health authorities shows that some Nigerians were falsifying COVID-19 test results.

“The report we got from the ports of entry in the last four to five months is that some of the travellers who left Nigeria with negative COVID-19 test results, tested positive on arrival in countries including the UK, Ghana and Mali,” Tomori said. 

“There are two ways to look at it; one, it is either they left the country with fake results or it is still possible that they could have been negative a day or two before leaving the country.

“However, that large number of positives on arrival at international points of entry gives the impression that many of them left Nigeria with forged results.”

The virologist said persons involved in falsifying COVID-19 results are bringing “shame” to the country and worsening the spread of the virus.

He called for increased testing and for systems to be put in place to curb the issuance of false COVID-19 results. 

“With the consistent large number, my fear is that they are sending out a lot of people with forged results,” he said.

“It is becoming known that some Nigerians, who don’t get tested, are presenting forged negative test results, which is a shame because we don’t have a system in the country to check this.

“It has to be people from outside who are discovering this and this brings a lot of shame to the country; we lose respect and we lose credibility.”