Abuja police arrest quack doctor who has been practising for 10 years using fake certificate

ABUJA police have arrested suspected quack doctor Victor Akpan, in the Gwarinpa area of the Federal Capital Territory who had been running a private hospital for 10 years operated with forged and stolen certificates.

 

In a scary development, Mt Akpan operated as a doctor for about a decade, performing caesarean sections, removing fibroids and delivering babies for pregnant women. He was the owner of Luna Maternity and Surgery Hospital, an outfit he opened in 2006 using a forged licence, four years after the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) refused to grant him licence to practice as a homeopath.

 

Dr Henry Okwuokenye, the head of the MCDN's inspectorate division, who had been investigating Mr 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 added that an investigation by the MDCN showed that Mr Akpan presented forged documents to unsuspecting officials of the Private Health Establishment and Monitoring Committee, 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,” Dr Okwuokenye said.

 

Mr Akpan told police investigators that in 2002, he paid N15,000 to one Nwagbara, a worker with a teaching hospital in Enugu State, to get a forged MDCN practice certificate. This certificate was issued to one Dr Awani, a 1995 Medicine and Surgery graduate of the University of Benin.

 

Among other documents allegedly forged by Mr Akpan, one indicated he did his internship at Calvary International Hospital in Enugu in 1996 and did 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.