A High Court in Jabi, Abuja, has sentenced Martins Ugwu for impersonating a medical doctor and using his friend George Daniel Davidson’s certificate to secure a job at the Federal Ministry of Health.
Demola Bakare, spokesperson for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), announced on Tuesday that Ugwu faced a seven-count charge filed by the commission in February 2016.
Ugwu was accused of falsifying information to the Federal Civil Service Commission chairman, enabling him to secure employment in 2006. Over the next decade, he earned N17.2 million in salaries and benefits while pretending to be a licensed medical professional.
The charges, based on Section 25(1)(a) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, included using forged documents to obtain a staff ID card, apply for leave, and enrol in a postgraduate epidemiology program that could have awarded him a master’s degree.
During the sentencing, ICPC counsel Osuobeni Ekoi Akponimisingha requested that Ugwu be ordered to repay the N17.2 million he earned fraudulently.
Presiding judge Abubakar Idris Kutigi criticized Ugwu’s conduct and highlighted the dangers posed by unqualified individuals posing as medical professionals.
To set an example, Kutigi sentenced Ugwu to six months imprisonment for each of the seven charges, amounting to three and a half years, to be served consecutively.
Additionally, the court-mandated Ugwu to repay the N17.2 million. Failure to comply with the restitution order will result in an additional one-year prison term.