Read How Fake Doctor Ran Abuja Hospital For 10 Years Undetected

Investigations by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) led to police arresting a man who ran a private hospital for 10 years in Gwarimpa area of Abuja, where he offered surgeries and antenatal care, using forged certificates.

Victor Moffat Akpan was the owner of Luna Maternity & Surgery, an outfit he opened in 2006 as a “surgeon” using a forged practice licence—four years after MDCN refused to grant him licence to practice as a homeopath.

He’s understood to have delivered by caesarean section a set of conjoined twins who later died at National Hospital in 2013.

Dr Henry Okwuokenye, head of inspectorate unit at MDCN, who had been investigating Akpan, said the council did not grant him a homeopathic practice licence because the school he claimed to have graduated from in Enugu was unapproved to train students in alternative medicine.

Akpan told police during questioning on Friday that in 2002 he paid N15,000 to one Mike Nwagbara, then an administrative official with the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu state, to get a forged MDCN practice certificate.

The certificate used a folio number—unique to every doctor—registered to a Dr Tuoyo Awani, a 1995 medicine and surgery graduate of University of Benin.

Some documents also thought forged show Akpan to have interned at a Calvary International Hospital in Enugu in 1996, done his National Youth Service Corps with Prisons in 1997, attended an update course by the West African College of Surgeons in 2001 and a postgraduate course on the “scientific basis of obstetrics and gynaecology in 2002.”

But his 1990 Senior School Certificate from Eastern Nsit Secondary School, Odot, showed he had no pass in any of his six subjects, scored all 7s and 8s apart from an A3 in Geography.

Investigations show Akpan presented the forged documents to unsuspecting officials of Private Health Establishment and Monitoring Committee (PHEMC), which regulates private health outfits in Abuja, to get Luna registered.

Credit: DailyTrust

I Bought Seven Certificates For N100,000 – Fake “LUTH” Doctor

A 43-year-old man, Opeyemi Adesina, who allegedly paraded himself as a consultant gynaecologist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, says he paid N100,000 to buy the seven forged certificates he used.

 

 

Adesina, who hails from Ekiti State, was arrested on Tuesday by the Alakara Police Division on Alowolodu Street in the Alapere, Ketu area of Lagos State.

 

 

Adesina was arrested after his landlord, identified only as Akorede, wrote a “save-my-soul” petition to the management of LUTH some weeks ago alleging that Adesina brought home female patients to treat in his house and did abortions for them, among other unwholesome practices which could implicate him (the landlord).

Akorede had further explained in the letter that when he confronted Adesina, the doctor allegedly claimed to be a consultant gynaecologist with LUTH, adding that he (Adesina) brought the referral cases from the hospital to his house so that he could have time to attend to them.

 

 

It was learnt that the LUTH authorities, who could not find such name in the record of their consultants, forwarded the letter to the police, and Adesina was thereafter arrested.

 

 

It was gathered that the police also recovered the forged certificates.

 

 

The certificates included a fake MBBS certificate of the University of Ibadan, and a fake membership certificate of the Nigerian Medical Association.

 

 

Adesina said he paid N100,000 to one Kolawole in Ibadan, Oyo State, to get the certificates, adding that he had used them for only three years.

 

 

He said, “I bought the certificates from Kolawole in Ibadan. That was three years ago. I bought them from him for N100,000. He printed the seven certificates.

 

 

“I do not know where he stays. We did not meet in any specific location. We usually met at fast food joints or any agreed place. For instance, it was at Agodi Gate area that I gave him the money and got the certificates. I decided to use another name on the certificates.

 

 

“I forged them because I dropped out of the university. I was actually studying Medicine. However, I dropped out in the 500 level due to financial reasons.

 

 

“I married my wife about five years ago. She thought I was a certified doctor. She actually came to me for treatment in the Ketu area and that was how we met. We have a child.”

 

 

Adesina, who denied his landlord’s allegation, said he only operated a laboratory where he attended to his patients.

 

 

He said, “Three years ago, I decided to get the certificates just to cover up for the failure to finish my university education.

 

 

“It is not true that I brought women to treat at home. The truth of the matter is that I have a laboratory and the women came there. I usually did tests for them and by the time the test results were out, I would ask them to visit a hospital for treatment.”

 

 

The suspect’s wife, Olawumi, pleaded that her husband should be released as he had realised his mistake, and would never venture into such again.

 

 

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, said the suspect would be charged to court as soon as investigation was over.

 

 

She said, “Upon a written petition from the management of LUTH, Idi-Araba, the suspect was arrested for falsely practising as a medical doctor and consultant gynaecologist.

 

He confessed to have been in the practice for three years, and seven certificates were recovered from him. He will be charged to court soon.”

 

 

 

Credit : Punch