Exposed: Fraudulent Activities of Approved COVID-19 Test Laboratories In Lagos

While many Nigerians are celebrating the ease of lockdown occasioned by the dreaded COVID-19 Pandemic, some approved COVID-19 test laboratories appeared to be engaging in activities that tend to cause fear in people all in a bid to enrich their own pockets.

Investigations revealed that some of these laboratories located in Lagos State are in the habit of faking the result of the test by declaring that someone that is negative is positive and direct the person to their own preferred hospital for treatment.

One of the victims of this scam was said to be a man, whose three children needed to do COVID-19 test as they were returning to school abroad.

“The three children of this my friend were to return to school overseas on Saturday night. His wife was to take them, and the four of them did COVID-19 test in one of the government approved laboratories in Lagos.

“Results came out on Friday night that the four of them were positive, and this caused the entire family traumatised.

“My friend did the test immediately in another laboratory and he was negative. So entire family was divided, traumatised throughout Friday night.

“On Saturday, he spent about N400,000 (four hundred thousand naira) to change flight date, cancelled hotel booking for Sunday and lost one day booking in the process,” said the source.

The source added that on Saturday, the government approved laboratory called the man and referred him to a clinic and the doctor who will treat his family “as his children were to resume school this week.”

It was revealed further that the man got in touch with the clinic and that they gave him a bill of N200,000 (two hundred thousand naira) per person for treatment to make them negative.

The source said that the man called him on Saturday and that they decided to seek an alternative medical opinion.

“A new doctor was consulted and he shockingly told us that many of those laboratories were not conducting actual tests, that it’s a scam.

“So he didn’t pay the N800,000 (eight hundred thousand naira) to the waiting clinic.

“This new doctor took the entire family to the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) laboratory on Sunday, paid about N80,000 (eighty thousand naira) per person for fast track.

“All the five results came out on Sunday night all negative, now what will you call that, is it not a scam?

“It turned out that there’s a big scam going on over this so-called COVID-19 test,” said the source.

However, a top shot at the NCDC, who pleaded anonymity, debunked the allegation that some accredited laboratories in the state were giving fake COVID-19 results, and urged anyone with a proof of any laboratory found to be engaging in malpractices over the results to approach the centre.