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From Nigeria Premium Times says that an illegal medical certificate business is in full swing in medical institutions across the country.
According to the publication, racketeering has become so commonplace that network members provide fast services at rates set according to the pocket power of their customers and the urgency with which they need documents.
Big time business
A fitness certificate, a key requirement of the National Youth Corps, costs 7,000 naira; a certificate of fitness for the job, 10,000 naira, while a report certifying the ability to travel abroad could reach 20,000 naira, writes Oladeinde Olawoyin, author of Premium Times investigation report.
Olawoyin, who pretended to be a patient, told the story of an exchange he had with a lady from Orile-Agege General Hospital, near the Lagos-Abeokuta highway.
Racket Networks
"Just pay the money, tell us your name and wait a few hours. We do not need to test at all, "he said. And the money is not huge, because we have to pay a lot of people that your report will suffer, "said the woman.
False medical records
Olawoyin told RFI that he had ended up receiving a complete medical condition, with a positive O Rh D blood group, an AS genotype, details on stool badysis, an badysis of the condition. urine and a chest X-ray signed by a doctor named Adeoye.
"These people are part of institutions and understand the weaknesses," noted the Premium Times corresponding in a brief description of the operation of the system.
Olawoyin said during his investigations that he was able to confirm that fake medical certificates were being used to obtain health care benefits, insurance claims and other legal issues.
The Nigerian medical badociation would be silent
"It's something they do in life and it's not controlled, the different authorities are probably aware, but do not want to do anything about it," said Olawoyin, who said he tried to vain to get a reaction from the Nigerian Medical Association. on ethical failures that allowed racketeering to flourish.
"Hospital back door activity is just a drop in the ocean of Nigerian corruption," said Banwo Kolawole, an anti-corruption activist based in Abuja.
Nigerian paradox
"They are taking advantage of the shortcomings of public institutions and the desperate desire of citizens to get rich," said Kolawole, former program director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, Nigerian section of Transparency. International, Nigeria.
"We are focusing on grand corruption while little attention is given to Nigerians in trouble, forced to pay sneaky funds every day to benefit from basic public services."
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