Fake contact tracer arrested

Emelia Ennin Abbey Jul - 15 - 2020 , 10:45 2 minutes read

A 23-year-old man has been arrested by the police for allegedly posing as a COVID-19 contact tracer who took samples of sputum from unsuspecting persons at a fee.

The suspect, identified as Abdulai Baba, was arrested by the East Legon District Police following a report one company (name withheld) made to the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Airport Divisional Police Command.

Workers of the company had their sputum taken by Baba who charged a fee of Gh¢3,750.

Arrest

The Public Relations Officer at the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mrs Effia Tenge, who briefed the Daily Graphic, said the complainant told the Airport Divisional Police that on July 7, 2020, Baba introduced himself to the company as a COVID-19 contact tracer and that he was at the company to collect samples of sputum from the workers who were suspected to have had contact with an infected person.

After taking the sputum samples of 28 workers, Baba collected the Gh¢3,750 as testing fee and returned the results in a matter of 48 hours.

The results showed that some of the workers had tested positive and others negative.

Baba recommended that those who had tested positive must go into self-quarantine and ensure that they took the medicines he had prescribed for them.

However, after receiving the results, the owner of the company (name withheld), who was suspicious of Baba’s action, called the address of the company purported to have analysed the samples and issued the results and it turned out that the company had no knowledge of Baba and his activity.

The owner, therefore, reported the matter to the Airport Divisional Police.

Following the complaint, a police investigator, posing as a civilian, approached Baba to have his test taken and unknown to him (Baba) that he was dealing with a police officer, he took the investigator through the sample process but was arrested before he could present the results.

Upon his arrest, the police found an amount of Gh¢1,400 on him and he confessed to the police that he was a radio producer and not a COVID-19 contact tracer as he had claimed.