Release of impersonator endangers my life – Doctor
A doctor who was impersonated for 10 years said he and his family were living in fear after the man who stole his identity left police custody hours after he was arrested.
Dr George Davidson Daniel arrived Abuja from Jos on Friday with original documents to identify his impersonator as Martins Ugwu, a childhood friend and best man at his wedding, but was informed Ugwu had left police custody.
Ugwu worked in the federal ministry of health from 2006, using Daniel’s name and credentials, until a petition demanding the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria to verify him led to the discovery of two “Dr Daniels.”
Documents at MDCN showed a photo of Ugwu on a local-government-of-origin form but the medical credentials on file belonged to Daniel, doing residency training in Jos.
“I was broken hearted,” Daniel told Daily Trust hours after he learnt his impersonator was free and his whereabouts unknown. “It is not something that any doctor would want. Somebody is using your name to commit an offence that can even lead to somebody’s death.
“I hope this guy has not killed somebody, that is what has been going through my mind. I hope he has not killed somebody, using my credentials, using my name.”
Daily Trust gathered that Ugwu who never went through medical profession had risen to Level 13 in planning, research and statistics department of the federal ministry of health.
He was also on a government committee that welcomed anti-Ebola volunteers upon return from Liberia and Sierra Leone on May 24, and granted interviews after news broke that the volunteers were held back from leaving their hotels over unpaid bills.
MDCN, which regulates doctors, pushed for his arrest last week, but has expressed lack of confidence in police prosecution record after Ugwu was released hours later.
It has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, citing previous unsatisfactory police investigations, stalled prosecutions and moribund cases.
An official of the council said police at Apo Divison, where Ugwu was taken, had instead demanded documents on Ugwu from MDCN but had not moved toward demanding Ugwu to produce documents identifying himself.
Daily Trust gathered last week that Ugwu was to have undergone forensic identification to put his identity, fingerprint and biometrics on a database, citing concern of a possible claim of another identity.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, however, said it didn’t know Ugwu officially, but said he was only a student of “one of our programmes.”
“He managed to sneak into that programme and we are now reviewing to actually take necessary action against him,” said NCDC director Abdulsalami Nasidi.
Ugwu had on Tuesday circulated messages to “mobilize pressmen to cover the headline story of the arrest” of four top health ministry officials over “Ebola fund fraud amounting to over N5 billion.”
At his initial arrest, he alluded to the scam as he drove plainclothes policemen in his car to the station, telling his wife on phone: “They haven’t told me [the reason for the invitation] but it cannot be unconnected with the N5 billion fraud I uncovered.”