By Bada Abraham
The Punch newspaper reports that a fake doctor identified as Abawulor Omenka was caught by the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP) while interviewing for a job as a medical officer at the Covenant University Medical Centre, Ota, in Ogun State.
The report says the 35-year-old Omenka applied for the position with fake credentials, including a photocopy of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) registration certificate issued in 2015, and a certificate from the Benue State University where he purportedly obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, graduating with a Second Class Upper Division.
The suspect, who reportedly worked as an auxiliary nurse at some private hospitals, was caught when the interview panel comprising three doctors scrutinized him about his credentials.
His cover was blown when he could not justify why his MDCN registration number was the same as those who registered four decades ago.
When it became obvious that he could not justify the discrepancy, Omenka reportedly confessed to having obtained the fake certificates from racketeers at Oluwole in Lagos State.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of ANPMP, Ogun State Chapter, Dr. Kayode Oyelade, who was one of the doctors who grilled Omenka at the interview, told the newspaper how they caught the suspect.
According to him, the Medical Director of the university’s medical centre, Dr. Ademola Adebanjo, contacted him to be a part of the interview panel when he suspected foul play in the credentials Omenka submitted.
Dr. Oyelade confirmed that they caught Omenka when they discovered during the interview that he did not have full knowledge of the profession and many discrepancies in the credentials he presented.
He also disclosed that checks with some of the hospitals where Omenka claimed to have worked revealed that he was a health assistant.
He said:
“The interview was scheduled and it was conducted on Wednesday at the office of the MD.
“He gave us a background history of himself and all the places he had worked. We now asked him if he attended a university, and he said he went to Benue State University.
“We asked him about the courses he did in the university, and he was just saying things he knew nothing about. We discovered in the course of our interview that he has an idea because he has worked in some hospitals as an auxiliary nurse.”
Speaking further about how the panel knew that Omenka was fake, Dr. Oyelade said:
“If you are conversant with a medical certificate, you will know there is nothing like grade. When you are given a certificate as a doctor, it will just be specified that you have passed when you certify the examiner. There is nothing like first class or second class. Our certificate is not graded. Immediately, he presented that, and we knew it was fake.
He also said the MDCN certificate that the suspect presented was fake because it bore a registration number, 11,641, explaining that it was not possible for someone who claimed to have graduated in 2015 to have that number given that he (Dr. Oyelade) who graduated 32 years ago has number 20, 815.
He further disclosed that one of the doctors he called to confirm Omenka’s status told him that it was not the first time the suspect would be involved in such an act.
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