A secondary school leaver who admitted to working for several years as a medical doctor has been sentenced to 44 years and six months in jail.
The fake medical doctor, Ibrahim Mustapha, is however to spend a concurrent term of 10 years.
The High Court in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, which handed various sentences of six months, three years and 10 years on 10 counts leveled against him, indicated that the sentences are to run concurrently.
The presiding judge of the court, Justice Nathan Musa, who passed the judgement on Monday, said Ibrahim Mustapha needed to be punished for his potentially life-taking act of faking medical knowledge.
The judge said, “Only God can adequately quantify the damage you did as an unqualified doctor. Your act is condemnable and should be punished.”
The convict worked under the Adamawa State Government with a medical degree and professional license he took from a certified medical doctor.
He rose as an employee of the government to become a principal medical officer with Cottage Hospital, Fufore in Fufore LGA but was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) in June this year.
The DSS director in the state, Bola Olori, had told the media at the time that Mustapha held National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) certificate, an equivalent of Senior Secondary School certificate.
Ibrahim had confessed to forging MBBS credentials at the time but denied insinuation that people died in his hands.
“Yes, I’ve forged the documents as stated by the DSS boss and also done both major and minor surgical operations, including caesarian section, altogether more than 500 surgeries without causing the death of any of my patients as claimed,” Mustapha had asserted.
The investigation the DSS carried out on Mustapha at the time had shown that he “perfected the illicit act in Gombe where he worked as a ward attendant in several clinics.”
The DSS added that he was aided by a practicing doctor who gave him sample copies of his NECO results, MBBS of Bayero University Kano, NYSC Discharge certificate and Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria annual registration license.
“The suspect subsequently gained employment into the Adamawa state Hospital Management Board in October 2015 as a doctor and rose to the post of PMO, serving at both the Cottage hospital Mayo-Belwa and Fufore,” the DSS boss had added.
Mustapha’s illegal practice had blown open when he attended visa interview as a potential medical team member for the 2019 hajj operations.
He had in the course of the interview run into a man who knew him in Gombe as a ward attendant in an undisclosed clinic.
The man who had been shocked to see Mustapha sailing in the garb of a medical doctor had spoken up against him.
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