Kaduna — Issuance of fake yellow fever cards otherwise known as International Certificate of Vaccination (ICV), to travellers is reported to be thriving in Kaduna State. The card is required for entering certain countries.
Daily Trust learnt that some unauthorised persons or agents are issuing yellow cards to unsuspecting individuals in Kaduna.
It would be recalled that the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, last year urged travellers still using the old yellow cards to replace them with the new encoded ones. He also noted that foreign countries had been informed not to recognise the old card by October 1, 2013.
Alhaji Suleiman Abdulkadir, a resident of Kaduna, told Daily Trust that he was given a Yellow fever card at the health office of the Kaduna North Local Government secretariat in October last year, which he said was rejected at the embassy as it was said to be fake.
"I reported to the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja where it was also confirmed that the card was fake. The original one that the federal government advertised is being sold for N1,000 including the vaccine, but at the Kaduna North LG secretariat, I was charged N2,000 for each of the four cards I was issued, yet I was given fake one, it is not even the amount that matters but the implications of holding a fake card, which is more than the N2,000. Now, embassies are rejecting it," he said.
Deputy Director in the press office of the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, Clement Egbeama, said, "I think what they refer to as fake Yellow cards are the old ones that are no longer acceptable anywhere."
Expatiating on the features of the new Yellow card, he noted that the new one has security feature just as the Nigerian currency and is a little bigger and stronger than the old one. The texts on the cover of the new card are printed in silver. "Unlike the old card, the new one cannot be printed anywhere because of the security feature and the sensitive material used and the stamps on the card are in blue colour," he added.
On who has the mandate to issue the card, he said initially only the Federal Ministry of Health was issuing it to travellers at the cost of N1,000 but now, it has been extended to all states except Kaduna and Plateau because they have not got offices for that purpose.
Our reporter who visited the Kaduna North Local Government secretariat to demand the card was told that it was not available in Kaduna except in Lagos and Abuja airports.
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