A consultant with the Federal Medical Centre, Katsina has alleged threat to to his life over the conduct of a forensic audit in the hospital.

The consultant, who identified himself as Bashir Oyeyemi, in a mail said he has now gone into hiding and is appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari, his vice, Yemi Osinbajo and other well meaning Nigeria to intervene in the matter before it gets out of hand.

Below is the message by Oyeyemi.

Dear Compatriot,

I am Bashir Oyeyemi a Paediatrician currently practicing as a consultant with the Federal Medical Centre, Katsina. The centre is a tertiary healthcare facility in North western Nigeria owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria. I graduated from Offa Grammar School and the University of Ilorin Medical School in 1986 and 1992 Respectively. I am a Fellow of The National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.

I am currently the Chairman of the Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria in my Hospital and by virtue of that I was asked to represent the Association on a forensic audit committee of the personnel budget of my centre.

The observations and resolution of an emergency meeting of my association at our last meeting held yesterday before I went into hiding are self-explanatory and are attached.

I am currently in hiding and I need your sincere help in getting this message to the ears of our President, the Vice President and all well-meaning people so that my life that is threatened with assassination threat will not be lost in vain, that is if God has willed my time has come. The President and his vice claimed they are for everyone but not for anyone. What I am asking of you is to help me pass this information to the widest possible audience.

My colleagues informed me that two of them have had their homes visited by unknown persons attempting to break into their homes since when we reached the attached resolutions.

MEDICAL AND DENTAL CONSULTANT ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA

FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, KATSINA

RESOLUTION OF EMERGENCY GENERAL MEETING

HELD ON SEPTEMBER 7, 2015.

OBSERVATIONS

1. A forensic audit committee was set up by the management in conjunction with 3 professional association of Doctors namely The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) and the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Katsina to look into the personnel budget of the hospital to ascertain how much fund is available for the approved skipping of a salary grade by doctors.

2. Part of the finding of the committee is that personnel budget of the hospital is being diverted in the name of former staff of the hospital into unknown accounts to the tune of one million two hundred thousand naira (N1, 200,000:00) in a particular month from doctors pay alone. It is to be noted that doctors constitute less than 10% of the staff of the hospital.

3. Members of our association have received a second threat of assassination within one week, the first was on 2nd of September and the second one was received today 7th of September, 2015 from the same telephone numbers i.e. +2348139405594 and +2348061145967. The last one emphasizing that the assassination mission will still hold.

4. The immediate issue that preceded the threat was the request that management should identify where the diverted funds have been going as well as the request that management should, through the relevant Head of Departments verify the salary payrolls of non-doctors, which constitute over 90% of the workforce of the hospital.

5. The doctors in the hospital were instrumental to the progressive increase in the revenue appropriately entering into the coffers of the hospital rather than unknown coffers from less than three million (N3,000,000:00) to fifteen million (N15,000,000:00) per month currently. This was attained without any significant increase in hospital charges.

6. Despite a written letter to the management on receipt of the first threat, management has taken no visible steps at assuring our members of their safety. Infact management is reported to have dismissed the threat as empty on the premise that members of management and staff frequently receive such threats.

7. The Chief Accountant of the Hospital was however assassinated in his home in the recent past.

RESOLUTIONS

The association hereby resolves as follows:

1. The association hereby announces an indefinite and complete withdrawal of services of her members until such a time when we can be reasonably assured of adequate safety of our members at work and in their homes, the forensic audit committee has completed its work and has submitted its report to the relevant bodies including the Nigerian Medical Association.

1. The Forensic Audit committee activities stands suspended immediately until adequate evidence of security is provided for each member of the committee at home and at work.

III. Every document requested by the forensic audit committee for its activities must be provided in full before its activities can resume.

1. Everyone implicated in perpetrating any fraudulent diversion of public funds based on the outcome of the forensic audit committee’s findings must be brought to book and arrested before our members will feel secure to resume the provision of services.

1. The association shall give adequate publicity to the above resolutions in the widest sense possible.

Signed by:

DR BASHIR O. OYEYEMI              DR MUHAMMAD UJUDUD MUSA CHAIRMAN                                                   SECRETARY