"Our Certificate is not Graded" — Fake Doctor Arrested During Interview

Cursory: A fake doctor nabbed while trying to apply as a medical officer at the Covenant University Medical Centre

Irrespective of how an environment or atmosphere must have exposed you to some basic fields you think you know, there are others who are professionally inclined in that field.

I believe that’s why, Abawulor Omenka, presumed that he had known it all, having being exposed to medical precepts. Thereby, giving him the intuition that he can manipulate his way.

Omenka has been caught by the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners while trying to apply as a medical officer at the Covenant University Medical Centre, Ota, in the Sango area of Ogun State.

He came presenting fake credentials which included a photocopy of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria registration certificate issued in 2015.

The 35-year-old suspect also presented a certificate from the Benue State University where he claimed to have obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, and graduated with a Second Class Upper Division.

A source reported to Punch:

“The man first went to Covenant University Health Centre last week to apply for the post of Medical Officer.

“The MD of the centre, Dr. Ademola Adebanjo, suspected foul play and scheduled him for an interview this week.

“He then reached out to Dr. Kayode Oyelade, the Chairman of ANPMP, Ogun State chapter about his suspicions. So Dr. Oyelade and Dr. Akin Oyejoko, an executive of the association sat in the interview panel yesterday to be able to get to the root of the matter. That was how he was nabbed.”

Dr Kayode, Chairman, Association of Private Medical Practitioners in Ogun State disclosed that Omenka was caught because it was realized that he doesn’t have full knowledge of the profession.

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Kayode said:

“The man actually applied to work as a medical officer at Covenant University Medical Centre where students, staff and some residents of the community go for medical treatment.

“Immediately they got his application, and the medical director discovered that the CV and certificates presented were questionable, being a medical doctor himself, he contacted me. I told him to invite the guy for an interview. The interview was scheduled and it was conducted on Wednesday at the office of the MD.

“We made the guy very comfortable and we started asking him a series of questions. 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.

“In fact, he had worked at the hospital owned by some of our colleagues that we know. We put a call across to them and two of them actually confirmed that they knew him very well. I told them he was trying to apply as a medical officer, and they told me he worked with them as an auxiliary nurse or better put, as a hospital assistant.

“What gave him up were the certificates he presented. Omenka presented a photocopied certificate he claimed to have obtained from the university with a Second Upper Division in Medicine and Surgery.

“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 presented a certificate he claimed to have got from MDCN, we saw that one and we just laughed. The registration number is 11,641. I graduated 32 years ago from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and my number is 20, 815. And someone who claimed to have graduated in 2015 is 11,000, which means he graduated before me. I am sure that some of the people with that number are dead now.

“We called one of the doctors again and he told us that this is not the first time he would be involved in such a thing.”

Reacting to the issue, Dr. Azim Kunle Ashimi, Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Ogun State Chapter advised heads of public and private hospitals to be very careful on who they employ by conducting a thorough background check.

It was further revealed that Omenka had been handed over to the police at Onipanu Police Station, Ota in Ogun State where he confessed to have obtained the fake certificates from racketeers at Oluwole in Lagos State after much interrogation.