It has emerged that President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania was actually behind the suspending of the country’s head of its national health laboratory in charge of coronavirus testing Nyambura Moremi.
President John Magufuli questioned the accuracy of test results that were rising the confirmed cases in the country rapidly which was shortly followed by the dismissal of Nyambura Moremi, the head of the national health laboratory in charge of COVID-19 testing in Tanzania.
Magufuli, who has consistently downplayed the effect of COVID-19 surprised the World on Sunday when he said that he had secretly had animals, fruits, and vehicle oil tested at the laboratory in the pretense of the samples being of human beings.
According to the Tanzania President Magufuli, the papaya, quail, and goat samples actually tested positive for COVID-19 which made him cast doubt on the credibility of laboratory equipment and technicians leading him to question whether the country even had a COVID-19 case.
President Magufuli cited that a ‘dirty game’ was being played in Tanzania and called for a speedy investigation though not coming out openly on which country the testing kits had been imported from.
“The equipment or people may be compromised and sometimes it can be sabotage,” Magufuli said in a live speech broadcast on Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC).
The immediate suspension of Nyambura Moremi shortly followed President Magufuli’s nationally broadcasted concerns with the Opposition legislator Zitto Kabwe who is the head of the Alliance for Change and Transparency, defending the Lab director.
“Don’t get heartbroken by the way politics is interfering in technical issues,” Zitto Kabwe posted on Twitter adding that he knew the Tanzania Lab head had been professional and would remain Tanzania’s best scientist.
Nyambura Moremi, Tanzania’s national lab director was suspended alongside the Quality Assurance Manager as reported in a statement by Catherine Sungura, the acting head of communications at the ministry of health, “to pave way for investigations”.
A committee comprised of ten officials had been formed to investigate the laboratory operations, including its process of collecting and testing COVID-19 samples.
On Sunday, President Magufuli also fired the head of the government Medical Stores Department, which is in charge of distributing medical supplies and equipment to government hospitals, but gave no reason.
Tanzania has over 500 COVID-19 cases with more than 16 deaths as the government continues to be accused of hiding vital information as President Magufuli is currently being accused of playing ignorant at the expense of Tanzanian’s lives.
This article was originally published by Soko Directory.