The
police have arrested a suspected quack doctor, Victor Akpan, in the Gwarinpa
area of Abuja.
It was learnt that Akpan,
who had been running a private hospital for 10 years, allegedly operated with
forged and stolen certificates.
As
a quack doctor, he was said to have performed caesarean sections, removed
fibroids and delivered pregnant women of babies.
His
arrest came exactly one year after the arrest of a senior medical officer with
the Federal Ministry of Health, Martins Ugwu, by the police for practising as a
medical doctor with stolen certificates for over nine years.
It was learnt on Tuesday
that Akpan’s arrest was sequel to investigations by the Medical and Dental
Council of Nigeria.
It
was gathered that the suspect was the owner of Luna Maternity and Surgery
Hospital, an outfit he opened in 2006 using a forged licence – four years
after the MDCN refused to grant him licence to practice as a homeopath.
The
Head of the Inspectorate Division of MDCN, Dr Henry Okwuokenye, who had been
investigating Akpan, said the regulatory agency did not grant him a homeopathic
practice licence “because the school he claimed to have graduated from in Enugu
State was not approved to train students in alternative medicine.”
He
said an investigation by the MDCN showed that Akpan presented forged documents
to unsuspecting officials of the Private Health Establishment and Monitoring
Committee, an organisation, which regulates private health outfits in Abuja, to
get Luna registered.
“Akpan
had big name patients as far back as 2007 and had facilitated the expansion of
his clinic.
He hired five workers, who assisted him in an apartment where he
performed caesarean sections, removed fibroids and delivered pregnant women of
babies,” Okwuokenye said.
It
was learnt that the suspect, who was already with the police, could be paraded
this week.
It was
also gathered
that Akpan told police investigators that in 2002, he allegedly paid N15, 000
to one Nwagbara, a worker with a teaching hospital in Enugu State, to get a
forged MDCN practice certificate.
The
certificate was issued to one Dr. Awani, a 1995 Medicine and Surgery graduate
of the University of Benin.
Among
other documents allegedly forged by Akpan, one indicated he did his internship
at Calvary International Hospital in Enugu in 1996 and had his National Youth
Service Corps with the Nigerian Prisons Service in 1997.
He
also claimed to have attended a course organised by the West African College of
Surgeons in 2001 and a postgraduate course on Scientific Basis of Obstetrics
and Gynaecology in 2002.
The
FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Anjuguri Manzah, did not pick calls made
to his phone.
He
also had yet to reply to a text message on the incident.
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