Mariam Namakula
Police have defied orders from the First Pharmacy, asking them to apologize following their (Police’s) recent statement on raiding and eventual arrest of their staff over illegal possession of Covid-19 vaccines.
The pharmacy, which has two branches in Mulago and Wandegeya, had on Monday morning demanded that the police issue a public apology disassociating them from the allegation and that neither pharmacy nor their staff were involved in the incident.
The First Pharmacy managing director Ahmed Yusuf had insisted that they don’t deal in sale of Covid vaccines and that the police had to issue a public apology for defamatory or risk a law suit.
“We believe it is a matter of wrong identification since we share a compound with some of the raided pharmacies (Modern Diagnostic Laboratory) which have been doing Covid vaccination and issuance of certificates,” he said.
However the police have since then noted that the matter was since under investigation and that that only investigation will link or exonerate first pharmacy from the illegal sale of coronavirus vaccines.
Police Mouthpiece, Fred Enanga, insisted that they got a tip off that some pharmacies had illegally acquired Covid vaccines and that they were selling them, which later on led to the operation although First Pharmacy were denying involvement.
“The allegations are there and it (First Pharmacy) is one of those places where the seven suspects were got. If it is not their staff, investigations will help prove or disprove the allegations against them,” Enanga said, adding the management of First Pharmacy shouldn’t run into conclusion but rather wait for the investigations into the matter.
“The suspects were arrested administering vaccines to clients upon payment but investigations will help us prove,” he added.
According to the police statement, another raid was at Victoria Pharmacy which also led to the arrest of five suspects putting the total at 12 the number of people arrested over the illegal possession of Covid vaccines.
During the raid, 803 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, 1000 consent forms, test tubes and other Covid vaccination related documents were recovered since Sunday June 13.
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