A former chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has been exposed by the olice as a fake doctor. He operated under the name, Dr. George Daniel. His real name is Martins Ugwu Okpe
Parading the suspect before newsmen yesterday at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, the police said the 45-year-old man who has worked as a medical doctor with the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja since 2006, rose to Grade Level 12 status, was after all, an impostor and fake.
Okpe was attached to the Research and Planning Department of the ministry.
Interestingly, the suspect, who is a secondary school certificate holder, became the NMA chairman, Federal Ministry of Health branch, where he was in charge of the welfare of qualified medical doctors.
He was among the medical volunteers trained by the ministry in conjunction with the African Union Support to Ebola out-break in West Africa(ASEOWA), Mission in Liberia, but declined to proceed for the trip after collecting all the allowances from both the ministry and the AU.
He also secured admission for professional training at the Centre for Disease Control, tagged: “Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training (NFELTP), which is a post-graduate programme affiliated to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. However, his academic performance casts doubts on his competence as a medical doctor.
Okpe refused to accept blame for his crime. He heaped the blame on the porous system for not detecting his true status over the years.
Ironically, the “doctor” defended his action, saying he was in the system to correct the inherent errors and expose the lapses.
Police had revealed that the suspect stole the certificate of his medical doctor friend, one George Davidson Daniel, with which he gained employment with the ministry as a doctor and bears the name on the certificate.
The police said he would be charged with impersonation.
Force Deputy spokesman, Abayomi Shogunle, said the fake doctor was exposed following a petition to the Inspector-General of Police on March 10 this year by Festus Keyamo chambers on behalf of Martins Ugwu Okpe, an impostor that assumed the identity of Dr. George Davidson Daniel.
He said the petition was transferred to the police analytical tracking and inception centre for investigation.
According to him, the Federal Civil Service Commission had also written a petition against the suspect, dated May, 2015, when he was found to be engaging in unprofessional conduct and unwholesome behaviour of fomenting trouble, blackmailing and misleading health workers among other crimes.
Police said his trouble started after investigation carried out on him by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) found him to be fake and traced the records of Dr. Daniel, who is in a residency programme in Jos, to the Ahmadu Bello University, Faculty of Medicine, that contained a passport size photograph bearing no resemblance with the suspect.
Further police investigation showed that the suspect is a childhood friend of the doctor. He stole the certificate when he was his friend’s best man.
But Okpe, who said he had wanted to become a soldier, but failed to gain admission into the Nigerian Defence Academy(NDA), said he actually stole the certificate when his friend visited him at his home in Karu, Abuja, noting that he regretted what he did.
