These are no ordinary times for the Ministry of Health. Petitions are flying here and there. An employee, who joined the ministry as a medical doctor, has been discovered to be fake and is being tried by the police. He is said to be the arrowhead of the petitions. OLUKOREDE YISHAU examines the crux of the matter
In all his years in the civil service, Linus Awute has perhaps never faced the sort of challenge he is facing now. The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health is being accused of one wrongdoing or the other. The man identified as the arrowhead of the attack on him was known as Dr Davidson George. He joined the ministry in 2006 as a Medical Officer 11 on grade level 13. He was due to be promoted as Assistant Director in Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Health. But, it has turned out the man Awute and others have addressed as George in the last few years is actually Martins Ugwu Okpe.
He is now remanded in prison pending when he will be able to meet the bail conditions slammed on him after he was arraigned on Tuesday at the Federal High Court in Abuja. He was accused of stealing certificates of Exemption issued by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level), belonging to Daniel Davidson George.
A five-count charge was brought against him. He was charged, among others in the five-count charge, of claiming ownership of the certificates and tendering them before the Federal Civil Service Commission in Ebonyi State and was offered a temporary letter of appointment, dated August 30, 2006.
Count one of the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/296/2015 reads: “That you Martins Ugwu Okpe, male, aged 44 years, of the Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on or about March 13, 2006, at an unspecified hour in Karu Abuja of the Abuja Division, committed stealing; and did steal certificates of Bachelor of Medicine and National Youth Service Corps Exemption dated February 8, 2005, with serial number 000027400, property of Mr. Daniel Davidson George, being the certificate awarded to him by the Senate of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State, dated August 29, 2002 and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 383 and punishable under Section 390 of the Criminal Code Law.”
Okpe pleaded not guilty. Justice Gabriel Kolawole granted the accused bail in terms and conditions agreed upon by the prosecution and defence lawyers, Malik Taiwo and O. O. Otemu.
Taiwo filed a counter-affidavit to Okpe’s bail application but withdrew it later. Justice Kolawole admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties in the same amount.
The judge said the sureties, who should be either federal or state employees, must be on not less than Grade Level 12. He ordered that Okpe be remanded in Kuje Prison, Abuja, pending his compliance with the bail conditions.
When trouble began
Trouble began for Okpe when three of his colleagues – Dr. Adebayo Williams, Chidozie Godwin and Abdulazeez Umar, in a petition titled: “Unbecoming Behaviour of Dr. George Davidson Daniel” to the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission on May 13, asked for the investigation of his professional claims. They complained that “Dr. George, who claims to be a trained medical doctor in such a way that is unbecoming of his profession, has been involved in blackmailing, character assassination and mudslinging”. The petitioners said Ugwu was using the certificate of a medic with a Mission in Jos, Dr. Davidson Daniel.
The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) forwarded the petition to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), the body in charge of keeping the records of all medical practitioners in the country. The council discovered that it has a doctor named George Davidson Daniel in its archive, but the picture sent to it from the Ministry is different from the one sent in its archive.
On June 4, the Registrar of MDCN, Dr. A. Ibrahim, in a letter to the Chairman of FCSC, Deacon Joan Ayo, confirmed that Ugwu was impersonating Daniel.
The council wrote: “Records available to the council revealed that this Dr. Davidson Daniel George is an impostor as he is impersonating another Dr. Davidson Daniel who is the genuine doctor and currently undertaking his residency training in Jos, Plateau State. Council summoned and interacted with the genuine doctor who gave some vital information on the impostor. Council has reported the matter to the law enforcement agency as a case of impersonation, with the genuine doctor deposing to a statement with regards to what happened between him and the fake doctor whose real name is Mr. Martins Ugwu. As it is, Mr. Martins Ugwu is an imposter. You may therefore wish to take further actions to deal with this matter in accordance with the provisions of the law.”
On June 5, the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), in a letter to the Chairman of FCSC, confirmed that the real George Davidson Daniel graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in May 2002. The latter was signed by the Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Prof. A. G. Bakari.
After its investigations, FCSC wrote Awute asking him to hand over the suspect to the police for further investigation and prosecution. Okpe was thus placed on suspension pending his dismissal from the Service.
The whistleblower?
Okpe initially dismissed the allegation against him claiming he was being victimised because he was exposing the rot in the ministry. At another point, he said he joined the ministry with a friend’s credentials so as to have enough facts to expose corrupt people in the ministry.
When the deputy spokesperson of the police, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) Abayomi Shogunle paraded him at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on July 7, Okpe, who confessed to the crime, said he was 44 and father of five.
He said: “I never opted for clinical services to avoid damage that may occur. I went into administration and research. It is in the health services, research and statistics that all the fraud in the health sector is found.
“I have great remorse but it’s my desire to save my country that pushed me into this. I have great passion for Nigeria. I participated in the Ebola mission and much more and have not even been paid.
“Severally there were biometrics verification but I survived them. I was the NMA chairman since 2008. Federal Ministry of health, I don’t think it has the mechanisms for that. The ministry is porous.”
The police explained that Okpe abandoned his real identity and became Dr George Davidson a friend from who he stole photo copies of his certificates with which he gained employment in the ministry.
Before he was exposed he claimed to have unearthed fraud in the disbursement of the N1.9b Ebola intervention fund. In his petition, he claimed that the ministry spent N900 million on isolation tents. He accused the Director, Health Emergency Response and Disaster Management, Akintunde Kehinde, of initiating vouchers of N28.2 million to pay for the decontamination of First Consultant Hospital in Obalende, which had already been done by the Lagos State government.
He also alleged that N63.5 million meant for the training of volunteers in Liberia and Sierra Leone were unaccounted for.
But Kehinde, in a statement to the Police, agreed that the Lagos State did the contamination of the hospital, and that on realising this, the funds were returned to the ministry.
The petitioner also alleged that the Project Director, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDC), Prof. Nasidi Abdulsalam, of withdrawing N63,581,250 million for pre-departure training of Nigerian volunteers who left the country on December 5, last year for Liberia and Sierra Leone. He claimed that the African Union Commission paid for all the expenses.
He also claimed that N30,769,000 million was withdrawn from the Ebola account for a treatment research group on Ebola, adding that N14,415,000million was expended on a meeting for 15 people.
Awute last month told The Nation on phone that he had nothing to hide and would cooperate with all law enforcement agencies to investigate the allegations. He expressed confidence that at the end of the day, the truth would emerge.
He said: “I have come to the realisation that prisons are built for men and if that is where I belong, I should be put there. But what I know is that I have been transparent in the handling of the Ebola funds. I deserve honour and nothing more for my role in containing the virus.”
The police invasion
of the ministry
His petition elicited some reactions from the police, which stormed the ministry to effect the arrest of Kehinde, Prof. Abdulsalam and Awute. That was on June 10.
The officers accused these men of failing to honour invitations to defend themselves over the allegations of mismanaging the Ebola funds.
The permanent secretary and the NCDC boss were not around when the police came calling. Kehinde was picked up from his office and dragged to the third floor. The police team was resisted by the workers who felt the manner of the arrest was arbitrary.
The workers prevented the police from whisking him away. They followed the team to the car park and blocked the exit. The private security guards were ordered to lock the gate so that the team would not be able to go out.
At a point, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) attached to the Federal Secretariat, Mr. John Eleke, approached the team and tutored them on the need to allow the arrest go through a proper channel to avoid chaos. He suggested that the director should be taken to police post within the secretariat, which the workers agreed to. He was later allowed to report to the police himself.
When will peace cometh?
Though Okpe is now being tried, the ministry is yet to know peace. This forced Awute to write a petition to Inspector General of Police Sunday Arase on July 6. This was after the police had arrested Okpe while investigating him.
Awute, in the petition, said: “The purpose of this letter is to further request for your intervention to protect my life and the monumental achievements of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the health sector. The gang that he has created in nine years in the Ministry is desperate to rewrite the success story of the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Report on the success of Ebola Virus containment in Nigeria. They started this at the onset, through intimidation as they believed that Ebola fund can be shared or allocated to them. When it failed they resorted to cheap blackmail and so their motive and trend of impunity were put to question for proper investigation. That was how they started to circulate documents blackmailing me ostensibly seeking to thwart or disrupt the investigation of the criminalities of the gang in the Ministry headed hitherto by the fake Doctor. They have condoned away the fake doctor’s family. The members of the gang are the one now bailing him and executing his plans in the Ministry since the fake Doctor is now suspended and barred from entering the Ministry’s offices.”
The real Dr. George
The man Okpe impersonated for years is Dr. George, who is on residency training with the University Teaching Hospital, Jos. They both hail from Orukpa in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State.
He said he was dazed when the Dental and Medical Council told him on the phone that Okpe had been using his credentials to work with the ministry.
He said: “He didn’t forge it. It was the photocopy of my NYSC discharge certificate. It was part of my documents that I took to Abuja with him. My family has been concerned; even I consulted with members of my family before I went for the press conference. And they gave me their full blessings. Their concern is that you are not to be seen bringing your fellow village man down, it is a taboo. That’s was why when they spoke to me, I said I need to talk with members of my family and they gave me the go ahead and that was why I was a bit comfortable and given the fact that I was a bit on the reserve side, I didn’t really want to face the press. But none of his relations has spoken with me, even though I believe I deserve some apologies from them.”
George said he has some peace now that justice is being done.
“I got a little peace when I saw him on the network news yesterday because I am getting some justice. Since this thing happened, nobody has called me and I thought with the normal Nigerian way of doing things, it will be swept under the carpet. So, I said let me move on. But when I saw it, I got some peace, even with my wife; we got some level of joy. But the truth is that that peace will be complete if somebody calls me- either Martins or one of his family members to tell me sorry.”
He said despite his closeness to Okpe, whom he said is a distant relation, he never encouraged him to visit the house he built after joining the ministry.
“Since he built his house, I have not known the house. The Police asked me that question and I told them he has not given me that opportunity to know his house even when I tried to. He has not given me that opportunity and I said, well I don’t need to push further, he has his reasons,” George said.
On the education qualification of Okpe, the 44-year-old medical doctor said: “He is intelligent. I think he may have something higher than secondary school certificate. But I know he didn’t go to the University. You can discuss anything with Martins, he is good.”
Will justice be served?
Once Okpe meets the bail conditions, he will be out, but the case will continue and what happens after will be of utmost interest to many. The MDCN will sure be watching this case with serious attention. It initially said it was dissatisfied with police handling of Okpe’s case and took up the matter with the Inspector-General of Police. It complained that in the past prosecuting police officers have never called the council’s investigators to court as witnesses, leading to cases stalling in court. The council is prosecuting some 40 cases of quacks in courts.
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