The Lagos State Police Command has arrested one Abdulrahman Mohammed for allegedly impersonating a medical doctor and operating a clinic in the Idi-Araba area of the state.
Mohammed, a primary school-leaver, had allegedly paraded himself as a doctor for four years before luck ran out on him on Saturday.
Drugs, stethoscope, used syringes, blood pressure monitors, drip packs, among other medical paraphernalia, were said to have been recovered from a shop on Bamishile Street, Idi-Araba, where he attended to patients.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, while parading the suspect on Monday, said investigations revealed that the 39-year-old administered injections.
He said, "On April 14, around 12am, detectives from the Area D Command, Mushin, arrested a native of Ran village, in the Gamboru Ngala Local Government Area of Borno State, for operating as a medical doctor whereas his education stopped at primary school level, even though there is no certificate to authenticate that claim.
"Further investigations into the activities of Mohammed, who had been impersonating a medical doctor for the past four years, revealed that he had been administering intravenous injections, conducting medical tests on his patients and taking their urine and blood samples.
"The suspect confessed that he bought his drugs from Idumota Market. Exhibits recovered from him include blood pressure monitors – manual and electronic – syringes, drip packs both saline and sugar solutions, among others. The suspect will be charged to court as soon as investigation is over."
The suspect, who denied impersonating a medical doctor, said he had been operating as a chemist since 2014.
He admitted that he did not learn the skills from anyone, adding that he had wanted to become a doctor.
He said, "I stopped school after primary six. I started selling drugs and injections in 2014, but I don't give people injections or drips. Some people came to check their blood pressure. If a customer says he has a headache, I can sell Panadol to him. I buy my drugs at Idumota. Nurses come to buy from me."
Apart from Mohammed, two siblings, Ngozi Nnabude and Uchena Agagwaonye, a teacher at Handmaids International Catholic School, Aguda, Surulere, were paraded for allegedly threatening to expose a reverend sister for having an alleged sexual relationship with a reverend father.
It was gathered that Agagwaonye had consulted her elder sister, Nnabude, to help send threat text messages anonymously to the reverend sister – the head teacher of the school – for allegedly frustrating her at the school.
The Commissioner of Police said the head teacher reported the case after receiving many threat messages, adding that detectives of the command were mobilised to unmask the identities of the perpetrators who later tuned to be the siblings.
He said, "Investigation into the case revealed that Uchenna Agagwaonye, a teacher at Handmaids International Catholic School, was frustrated by what she termed as the highhandedness of the school's head teacher. So, she (Agagwaonye) decided to make life miserable for the Catholic nun by engaging her sister, Ngozi Nnabude, a woman with an outstanding knowledge of computer and telephony.
"When the threat to maim, kidnap, kill and expose her unfounded secret sex life was unabated, the reverend sister reported the matter to the command's Anti-Kidnapping Unit. Detectives investigating the case have been charged to find out if the suspects have the capacity to carry out their threats; if they are working with other criminals and if there are other persons they are torturing psychologically."
The siblings, who hail from Anambra State, confessed to sending the text messages, but denied threatening to kill the reverend sister.
Nnabude, 45, said, "My sister wrote a text message, but her phone went bad. She said I should help her to send it through online bulk SMS. She said the reverend sister was bringing down the school and that if she did not stop, she (Agagwaonye) would make a sex video clip involving her to go viral. We did not threaten to kill her."
Agagwaonye, 39, said, "I teach primary four pupils at the school. I have worked in the school for over 18 years now and she is the sixth reverend sister I will work with.
"The problem started in 2016 when I wanted to sit my final year examinations at UNILAG. I went to take permission from her, but she said she did not want to see anybody except the assistant headmistress whom I met with. The assistant headmistress granted the permission. When I came back, my salary was not paid.
"I begged her, but she directed me to the assistant headmistress. The woman said I should keep praying that she (the head teacher) would pay my salary. After two weeks, she paid me about N23,000 and deducted N12,000 from my salary. I was not happy, but I continued to work."
Agagwaonye explained that sometime in 2017, the head teacher told teachers that whenever they were doing revisions for pupils, they should revise the questions the pupils would encounter in the exams.
She said while she was doing the revisions as allegedly instructed, the assistant headmistress reported her to the reverend sister that she was engaging in examination malpractice.
"After six months when we had an argument over the graduation of pupils, the reverend sister gave me a letter of suspension and my salary was deducted again. I was not happy.
"This year, she told teachers that if a child left the class and school, we would get half salaries; if three children left, she would not pay the class teacher's salary.
"She sacked the security woman last year. The woman said she was sacked because she caught her (the head teacher) sleeping with a reverend father in the office. I told my sister that I wanted to make the reverend sister to calm down.
"I wrote in the message that if she did not change her ways, I would make the sex video clip to go viral. I don't have any video clip. If I knew it was blackmail, I would never have done that."
