The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Linus Awute, told newsmen in Abuja yesterday that the ministry would demand a refund of the salaries and allowances paid the ‘doctor’ in the past nine years. According to him: “It is important to place it on record that the Federal Ministry of Health does not employ any of its members of staff directly.
“He was recruited through the Federal Civil Service Commission which has the statutory powers to do so and then deploys such employed civil servants to any ministry, department or agency according to their discipline and relevance.”
On the activities of Martins Ugwu Okpe, the alleged fake doctor who assumed the identity of Dr. George Davidson Daniel and worked in the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) for over nine years, Awute said: “Mr. Martins Ugwu Okpe who hails from Ogbadibo Local Council of Benue State got himself employed fraudulently using the stolen documents of his childhood friend and best man, Dr. George Davidson Daniel, who has offered to appear during this press briefing to clear his name.
“Mr. Martins Ugwu Okpe was offered appointment by the commission on August 30, 2006 and was posted to the Federal Ministry of Health in September same year. “The surprising thing about Ugwu’s appointment is that he applied for the job on October 10, 2006. He was subsequently offered the job on October 17, 2006 and he applied for an identity card on the 19th of the same month.
By October 20, 2006, he was already applying for allowances to which he was not entitled, according to the new Federal Civil Service Rules. “He assumed duties in November 2006 in the ministry where he worked in the Departments of Hospital Services and Health Planning Research and Statistics (HPRS).” He further said: “Ugwu, under a false identity as George Davidson Daniel passed only one promotion examination in 2013 which placed him on Grade Level (GL) 13 from GL 12.
This was the sign of his incompetence as his mates are currently of GL 14 and above. “Mr. Ugwu was an argumentative and bellicose officer who tormented the lives of other colleagues, serving as a confidence trickster and an extorter.
“He was found to have perfected his trade of extortion not only as a member staff of the main ministry, but often harassed heads of agencies under the Federal Ministry of Health. “In his character, in May 2015, he raised a false alarm alleging that Ebola intervention funds were misappropriated.
“This was an alarm calculated to divert attention from his detection by colleagues in the ministry as a possible impostor and an identity thief who must have impersonated a medical doctor. He surprisingly sent his petition not only to all security organisations in the country, the Presidency, but also copied the key international partners of the Ministry of Health, thereby scandalising the name of Nigeria and trying to rubbish the achievements made by Nigeria on the Ebola containment success.
“In addition to this, he was also sending threatening text messages and intimidating anybody who he perceived was behind his travails.” Awute said a petition was sent to the Federal Civil Service Commission and copied the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria which investigated the matter and discovered that the man who had been working in the Ministry of Health was not the real Dr. George Davidson Daniel, but an impostor whose photograph did not bear the resemblance of the true Dr. George Davidson Daniel.