IPNews-Monrovia: It was March 16, 2020, when Liberia pronounced its first coronavirus case sending sharp waves across the country.

The Liberian Leader, President George Manneh Weah moments after the diagnosed of the COVID-19 patient, now dismissed Executive Director, Environmental Protection Agency-EPA, Nathaniel Blama, announced in a live radio broadcast that Liberia has recorded its first COVID-19 case months after the country sought to prevent its importation.

President soon declared the straight adherence to health protocols announced by health officials.

Since then, Liberia has been into total response with two separate lockdowns, including the declaration of a State of Emergency, as provided for by the constitution of Liberia.

At the moment Liberia has recorded a total 1234 cases, with total of 79 deaths and 714 recoveries.

As the response efforts intensifies, IPNews has uncovered a growing string of claims and counter claims between Liberia’s designated body for infection control, the National Public Health Institute and the newly reconstituted Incident Management System-IMS headed by Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah.

IPNews on Saturday, August 8, carried an article captioned: ” Dr. Mosoka Fallah linked to Controversial COVID-19 Results Again”.

The article detailed how a major syndicate was busted by Dr. Mosoka Fallah involving two of his staff over granting of an alleged negative controversial COVID-19 test results to diagnosed positive patient, named Ms. Skeeter Tannie Wilson, an American citizen.

The article detailed a complaint filed by Ms. Skeeter Tannie Wilson, an American citizen, seeking justification for her unwarranted confiscation of her American Passport, harassment and intimidation by officers of the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) allegedly on the orders of the Justice Minister, Frank Musah Dean.

Evidence in the possession of this paper indicates that Ms. Wilson passport was seized by the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) barred from returning to America on August 2 over a COVID-19 clearance controversy and informed that until a clearance certificate is issued, her passport will remain in the possession of the LIS, based on straight adhere to protocol, Ms. Wilson cooperated with the health authority to have her specimen collected on Aug 2.

According to Ms. Wilson legal team headed by Cllr. Neto Zarzar Lighe, Sr, Ms. Wilson visited the Ministry of Health on August 4, 2020 to obtain her result that would enable her to travel but unfortunately, there was no one to address her concern.

Through the effort of her legal counsel, she was later informed verbally by health authorities that her result had come out positive, hence she was quarantine, in line with COVID-19 health protocol.

Ms. Skeeter Tannie Wilson, who also came from the U.S.A for a funeral made contact with a deceased suspected of coronavirus according to her legal team.

“Surprisingly, while in quarantine, my client Ms. Wilson through a representative received her formal result and clearance signed by Dr. Mosoka Fallah, Director General of the NPHIL on August 6 declaring her COVID-19 negative and that she was fit to travel”. Cllr. Neto Zarzar Lighe, Sr, said.

The issuance of the clearance certificate has now sparked a major controversy and credibility for the ongoing Coronavirus response; as Cllr. Lighe is now requesting that the IMS under the chairmanship of Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah immediately release of his client, Ms. Skeeter Tannie Wilson from the treatment unit based on the clearance certificate issued and the return of her United States of America passport.

As the controversy continued over the granting of the Negative COVID-19 results by two staffs, the head of the National Public Health Institute-NPHIL, has suspended the pairs with immediate effect pending the outcome of investigation into how they granted a COVID-19 patient clearance certificate contrary to the NPHIL standing policy of only granting travelers COVID-19 clearances who are not patient and are not undergoing Cornavirus treatment within the quarantine center.

Critics of Dr. Mosoka Fallah, have accused him of allegedly issuing the clearance certificate to Ms. Wilson, a claimed he has since denied.

Dr. Fallah rejected the accusations that he broke any of the standing orders as being projected to the public.

He told IPNews that the NPHIL has a statutory mandate to issued ‘travel clearance certificate to persons wishing to travel and not patient at quarantine centers’, contrary to earlier perception.

Liberia’s infectious Scientist admitted to the issuance of the clearance certificate to Ms. Wilson, and attributes the decision to an ‘internal error’ from some staff at the National Public Health Institute-NPHIL contrary to the standard Operating Procedures-SoP, of only granting ‘ travelers Clearance certificate to a person wishing to travel and not to patient under the quarantine supervision of the Incident Management System,-COVID-19’.

Dr. Mosoka Fallah stated that the bridge of procedures on granting travel certificate to Ms. Wilson is serious and he has instituted a full scale investigation to which several staff of the National Public Health Institute have been suspended, pending investigation in relation to conflicting COVID-19 test results and travel certificate issuance.

“Let me say this. I have committed NO wrong and the detection of the bridge of our Standard Operating Procedures-SoP, by the suspended staffs for selfish gains, will fully be investigated with findings made public.”

” We are just target of Vengeance and victim of the negative propaganda out there; NPHIL under my stewardship has worked and continued to work in the supreme interest of Liberia and we will not allow any of our staff to bring us to public disrepute.” Dr. Mosoka Fallah insisted.

Dr. Fallah further stated that on August 6, 2020, Mr. Gborie issued a negative certificate to Ms. Wilson through a proxy when her result sent to him by Mr. Trokon Yeabah clearly stated that she was positive.

Gborie then sent a letter of testimonial to Dr. Fallah’s chief of office staff, Jonathan Enders, who without verification placed the electronic signature of Dr. Fallah on it.

In his communication to Mr. Gborie, Dr. Fallah indicated that “In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, it is very dangerous to the country for confirmed positive cases to be given results as negative. This will cause further spread of the disease making containment extremely difficult”.

Furthermore, He stated that as per the guidelines and best practice from NPHIL, only people with known negative results that have been verified are given a certificate of travel.

He added that the serious breach of this established protocol has the propensity to derail COVID-19 containment in the country.

According to Dr. Fallah, the investigative team comprises Deputy Director-General for Administration, Dr. Patrick Kpanyen, the Acting Deputy Director-General for Technical Services. Mr. Thomas Nagbe, the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr. Philip Bemah, and the legal adviser of NPHIL., Attorney Joel Theroway.

Additionally, two persons from the Ministry of Health’s legal department will also be asked to join the investigative team.

In a related path, Dr. Fallah has lashed out at critics spending precious time in formulating negative propaganda and cautioned them to put away the everyday Liberian politicking and jointly work to ensuring Liberia is safe from the current health vulnerabilities.

He said the time of ‘concocting lies, hate and negative propaganda’ to smell his reputation should be of the past as he has done nothing wrong ethically, professionally or administratively during the ongoing COVID-19 response efforts to be labeled negatively.

Dr. Mosoka Fallah maintains: ” I think I’m being unfairly treated in the midst of all. I’ve worked and continued to work amidst difficult challenges, especially the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, but to continued to project Mosoka Fallah wrongly to the public because people don’t like him or wants to see him go-down is totally unfair and has a far reaching consequences on the quality of our joint response efforts.”

“We’ve been quiet and continued to do our work with the Incident Management System, but this level of politicking needs to stop, if Liberia must advance in its quest of returning the country to zero COVID-19 Case.”

Another staff Fahn Taweh, Deputy Director, National Public Health and Reference Laboratory is also facing similar inquiry for also providing conflicting COVID-19 test results to Dr. Alaric Tokpah.

The situation involving Dr. Alaric Tokpah sparked huge public debate leading to Dr. Tokpah rejecting claims that he was COVID-19 positive after he had previously received certificate from Dr. Fallah informing that he was negative.

It may be recall, Minutes after health officials alerted Dr. Tokpah and sought his immediate quarantine an uproar ensued prompting militants for the Student Unification Party-SUP, to deployed student-militant at his Lapkazee community to prevent health authorities from quarantining Prof. Alaric Tokpah.

The situation led to an immediate inquest from Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, seeking clarity from Dr, Mosoka Fllah on the ‘dissemination of laboratory results’ that resulted into the embarrassing situation with Dr. Alaric Tokpah.

Mosoka Fallah: “Honorable Minister, as you can see in the above examples, all I have ever done was to ensure that laboratory results flow smoothly from the laboratory to the those who urgently need it (the military hospital and travelers) in order to minimize the increasing distrust in our ability to response timely over the last several weeks.

Speaking to Dr. Alaric Tokpah controversy, Dr. Fallah, stated: “Let me now provide you with the context on the issue of Dr. Alaric Tokpah. I will indicate to you that ‘I was not releasing his laboratory result to him but trying to get him his traveler medical approval certificate’ as we have always being doing. My goal was to quietly avoid a big embarrassment to the IMS for his missed flight because we did not provide him with his travel medical certificate. I would have quietly done this as I have been doing had I not being misled by the Laboratory Pillar lead, Mr. Fahn Taweh.
“At around 10:49 AM, I got a text on my phone stating the followings, “Good morning Dr. Fallah. My name is Alaric K. Tokpah. I did the COVID-19 test at SKD Stadium on Wednesday, July 8, 2020 for the purpose of obtaining travel approval. My flight leaves Liberia today. I therefore appeal for your assistance in this regard”.

“I called Fahn Taweh to let me know the status of Dr. Tokpah’s result so we could help produce his travel certificate. Fahn reported that it was him who actually gave my phone number to Professor Tokpah as they are both from Gbarpolu County. I asked Fahn so what was his results so I could asked Trokon Ajavon to prepare his certificate. Fahn came to my office and reported that Professor Tokpah test had being run and had the first result as indeterminate. They had repeated his test and it came out negative and yes we could print his certificate to travel. This was now about 5pm and most of the staffs had left NPHIL. All attempted to get Trokon by phone proved futile and Professor Tokpah was worried about his result. It was on the basis of the urgency that I asked Trokon Yeabah to send me a letter version of the certificate so I can sign it so that he does not miss his flight.”

“After the letter was done I signed and stamped the letter which was given to him by 5 PM. Less than 20 minutes after he got his result, we got a call from the data Manager of the laboratory, Joseph Tehyor, that Professor Tokpah was positive contrary to what the Laboratory Pillar lead had told me. I then called Fahn and alerted him about this and according to him he reached out to the CHO of the MCHT for them to call and laert Professor Tokpah. I then texted professor Tokpah that he could not travel and apologize in the misstep in the result. I have since taken the heat from the media without throwing Fahn Taweh, the architect of this confusion under the bus. As a leader, you take the beating for your men and then you go in house to make the corrections. Several persons suggested that Fahn received serious reprimand for this confusion. However, I have called him to ensure due diligence in the laboratory results as they have consequences. There was no way I was trying to give laboratory results but to provide travel documents as I have always being doing.”

The NPHIL Boss reiterated his commitment to supporting the IMS, and encouraged them all to overcome the many challenges to gaining trust of the communities in the fight against the COVID-19 virus.

In resuscitating confidence from the community in the COVID-19 response efforts, Dr. Mosoka Fallah advised Dr. Jallah and the IMS that: “ We cannot have confirmed cases in the communities for several days because our ambulances do not have gasoline or are broken. Many patients have called and asked to be taken to the Treatment Unit but the IMS cannot provide an ambulance to move them from the communities. This sow seeds of distrust in the response; We cannot take specimens and not give feedback to people for three or four days. They wait for long repeatedly calling for their results to no avail. It just reinforces the distrust in the response, and We cannot collect specimens and later say they are missing and need to recollect these specimens. The communities will think that there is a disconnect between what the IMS is saying about the severity of coronavirus and our inability to speedily give them their results. Testing, testing and testing has been the fundamental containment strategy.”

Sources have informed IPNews that remnant of the Tolbert Nyensuah alignment sees Dr. Mosoka Fallah, as the progenitor for the indictment against their former boss.

For more into the nature of the exchanges in PART II, login to www. Independentprobe.com