When Ayodele Oluwatominiyi was granted visa so he could reunite with his wife who has been living in the United States for four years, he couldn’t wait to relive past memories with her and refuel a bond that has been starving due to the distance.

Ayodele was scheduled to travel on July 17 but due to some challenges, his flight was cancelled. This forced him to reschedule his travelling for July 19. However, the cancellation necessitated that he did another Covid-19 test before the new travel date. He had initially done a test on the July 16 and the outcome was negative.

He decided to visit Medbury Medical Services, where he had undergone his first test, for a fresh one. However, Ayodele received the shocker of his life when he got a message from the same lab on July 19 that his second test was positive.

“He was distraught when he received the message. He was even already preparing to leave for the airport so as not to miss his flight,” said his brother, Ayodeji, a medical doctor.

“Here is one person that never left his hotel room to go anywhere when he could not travel the first time. How then could his result have come out positive when he has not come in contact with anyone within the space of three days?”

The second result meant Ayodele would not be able to travel a second time. But of curiosity, and to clear all doubts about the second test result he had received, he decided to visit a totally different test centre at Oshodi for a third test on July 20. When the result came out, he was negative.

The latest result forced Ayodele to visit Medbury Medical Services in the company of his brother Ayodeji just to demand for an explanation on the disparity in tests that were carried out within 24 hours of each other. He was however made to do a fourth test for free just to be sure the test he did elsewhere was accurate. The result came out negative.

“I demanded to speak with the doctor who signed off on the result but the explanation she gave for the disparity was not convincing,” Ayodele explained to FIJ.

“When I investigated further, I discovered that most of these accredited test centres or laboratories use rapid kit testing, which is not definitive, not specific and unreliable like the PCR.”

The rapid kit testing results are usually ready within 15 minutes and can sometimes be subjects of controversy in terms of accuracy. A Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test is on the other hand performed to detect genetic material from a specific organism, such as a virus. The test detects the presence of a virus if one is infected at the time of the test. The test could also detect fragments of virus even after one is no longer infected. All in all, it has been touted to be more comprehensive and accurate over time.

“It is heart wrenching that my brother has been forced to cough out N50,400 twice just because of the negligence and the insincerity of an accredited test centre,” Ayodeji lamented.

“What was even more painful was the fact that he had to cancel his flight a second time, prolonging his chances of reuniting with his family on time. This should not be happening in a country where we have a centre for disease control and other relevant agencies that are supposed to be monitoring the activities of these laboratories.”.

FIJ made several calls to Medbury Medical Services for a reaction, but they were unanswered as of the time of this publication.