Nigerian “doctor” quits college, buys fake certificates, turns home to “hospital”
Why complete medical college education when you can simply buy certificates?
That’s the story of Opeyemi Adesina, who dropped out of medical school, and purchased seven fake papers to shore up his “certificatorial” inadequacy.
And they didn’t cost much. Adesina’s mysterious certificate forger, Kolawole of Ibadan, saw to that.
But Adesina said he didn’t quit school by choice. After spending fiver years in medical college, he already knew what the profession was all about. But he had no money to go the remaining two years.
“I bought the certificates from Kolawole in Ibadan for N100,000. He printed the seven certificates.”
“Doctor” Adesina reportedly confessed to Punch after the police nabbed him.
Adesina, 43, said he bought the fake papers only three years ago, not immediately after he dropped out of school. But it remains unclear for how long the “fake” doctor plied his trade.
His words:
I do not know where he (Kolawole) stays. We did not meet in any specific location. We usually met at fast food joints or any agreed place. For instance, it was at Agodi Gate area that I gave him the money and got the certificates. I decided to use another name on the certificates.
I forged them because I dropped out of the university. I was actually studying Medicine. However, I dropped out in the 500 level due to financial reasons.
I married my wife about five years ago. She thought I was a certified doctor. She actually came to me for treatment in the Ketu area and that was how we met. We have a child. I bought the certificates three years ago.
That was how many women had come to Adesina for one kind of treatment or another, the man who exposed him reportedly said.
Akorede rented out a Lagos apartment to the “doctor” some years back. The landlord said he later suspected something beyond domestic was going on inside his tenant’s portion of the building.
Adesina was helping women abort pregnancies, the landlord said. Akorede said he spoke up because he didn’t want to be part of his “doctor”-tenant’s crime.
He alerted officers of the Alakara Police Division who arrested Adesina on Tuesday.
But Adesina has denied the allegations. He said he only ran medical tests for the women, not abort unborn babies for them. Abortion is so illegal in Nigeria even some freed Boko Haram abductees who returned with baby bumps could abort such pregnancies.
“The truth of the matter is that I have a laboratory and the women came there,” Adesina said.
“I usually did tests for them and by the time the test results were out, I would ask them to visit a hospital for treatment,” he said.
But he has also allegedly confessed to buying fake certificates, a crime under Nigerian law. He allegedly used one of the papers to pose as a certified gynaecologist with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
Olawunwi, his wife, has also reportedly told the police her husband’s deeds were mistakes from which he would now repent.
But Lagos police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, said the fake doctor would be face the law.
“Upon a written petition from the management of LUTH, Idi-Araba, the suspect was arrested for falsely practising as a medical doctor and consultant gynaecologist,” the police spokesperson said.
“He confessed to have been in the practice for three years, and seven certificates were recovered from him.
“He will be charged to court soon,” she said..
