FG Inaugurates 15-man committee on sale of babies in Aba Hospital
Written by Chinyere Amalu
Thursday, 19 February 2009

The Federal Government has inaugurated a 15-man committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged sale of babies by Dr. James Ezuma of Ezuma hospital, Aba, in Abia State. Inaugurating the committee today in Abuja, Health Minister Professor Babatunde Oshotimehin, directed the Registrar, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), to investigate the allegation as contained in the publication and to report the findings to him within one week.

It could be recalled that a serious report of unwholesome medical practices was published in the Newswatch magazine of 12th January 2009 involving one Dr. James Ezuma, a registered medical practitioner.

According to the minister, “accordingly, the Registrar constituted a six-man committee on 29th January, 2009 to carry out the investigation.

“The Six-member panel set up by the MDCN travelled to Owerri and tool evidence on the case from both the Abia State NMA president and the Director of Medical Service, Abia state Ministry of health, but could not get to Dr. Ezuma nor go to his hospital”.

He noted that based on this development, the Federal Government has decided to set up a 15- member investigation panel to carry out proper investigation on the incident and get to the root of the matter.

The terms of reference for the panel are; to review the report submitted by the Committee set up by MDCN on the directive of the minister of health; to review and recommend appropriate sanctions for the main suspect-Dr. James Ezuma where necessary; to determine the suitability or otherwise of the continues use of the hospital for the delivery of clinical services; to make appropriate recommendations to prevent a re-occurrence of such practices in future.

Oshotimehin, however, advised the panel to work fast and ensure speedy completion of the case as directed.

Responding, the Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Dogo Mohammed promised that the committee will would within the time frame and report back to the minister as directed.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/29154/42/

kai, how hard is it to know if someone has been selling babies or not, that they have to set up a panel of 15 people to be paid from tax payer's money.
Nigeria, i hail thee oh.
And last time i checked, i thought nigeria has detectives and people that could investigate stuff, and i am sure if you analyze the people that has been put together, they are probably people that knows nothing about kids, abt investigations, law or anything.
I guess another chop make a i chop scheme.

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tpia:

of course doing nothing would probably suit your mindset more.

wow, some Nigerians have absolutely no idea what civilization means. But trust them to always spring up with oversabi on any topic.

This is what will suit me.
Let the police real investigator deal with it and get the guy arrested if found guilty and have him punished.
what will the 15 people do? besides, do they need that many people? how much are those 15 people getting paid and what qualifies them for the probing?

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tpia:

so what's your own suggestion? 5 people who are PHD holders and who should be paid N1000 each?

Have they carried out any investigations at all?
The doctor has been suspected to have done something wrong, so how come the investigators cant be allowed to investigate and if found guilty, i will expect such person to be indicted to the court of law and not some probing.
Investigate -> Charge -> Convict and prosecute.
Instead of wasting money for some probing.

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tpia:

what do you think the panel is going to do? Just sit around eating chinchin?

I think u missing the point, so i rest my case with you.
they could set up 500-Men panel to investigate for all that matters
I am sure if the man is rich enuf, he will go away free

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I feel you, however, all i am saying as well, is that they should do a proper investigation and not just set up panels like they always do and nothing will come out of it, where they always use that as opportunity to steal more money.