Cross River State Ministry of Justice has taken over the prosecution of a fake doctor arrested in Calabar.
The suspect, Mr. Simeon Ukpun (35),
allegedly used the certificates of one Dr. Collins Okafor to secure
employment with the ministry. He was deployed in General Hospital, Calabar where he reportedly practised as a medical doctor before his arrest. The PUNCH Newspaper had reported in its
February 2, 2012 edition that Ukpun worked as a medical doctor from
October 1, 2010 to January 2012 when he was arrested. The suspect who was arraigned before a Chief Magistrate’s Court in Calabar was slammed with three counts by the police.
Ukpun was accused of defrauding the
state government “by falsely presenting yourself to one Dr. Phillip
Obaji and a team of interviewers from the Cross River State Ministry of
Health as a medical doctor and also presented to the team documents of
one Dr. Collins Okafor Ifere as being your own document knowing it to be
false.” He was also accused of falsely claiming
to be a medical doctor by presenting the Bachelor of Medicine and
Bachelor of Surgery certificate, and NYSC discharge certificate,
receipts of practising fees from the Medical and Dental Council of
Nigeria “lawfully issued to one Dr. Collins Ifere Okafor” to the state
Ministry of Health.
He was further charged with presenting a
forged certificate of origin from Obanliku Local Government, a fake
Senior Secondary School and an Abia State University certificates to
secure employment as a medical doctor with the ministry. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted a N50, 000 bail by the magistrate, Mrs. B. O. Ebig.
At the resumed hearing on Friday, the ministry applied for the transfer of the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The magistrate granted the request and
directed the police prosecutor to hand over the files to the DPP. The
case was adjourned till July 1, 2013 for continuation.
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