Fake medical doctor to pay seventeen million naira in debt on HWN HIGHLIGHT

Martin Ugwu Okpe, who impersonated his friend to work in the federal health ministry since 2006, owes federal government more than N17m in salaries and allowances he collected while working as an impostor.

Assessors with the Integrated Personnel and Payment Information System (IPPIS) arrived at exactly N17,024,017.90 through pay slips and performance evaluation cards as money Okpe owes government.
The amount excludes tax and union dues through nine years which were paid to the government, according to IPPIS.

The federal health ministry is looking for “full retrieval” of all monies that accrued to Okpe in the past nine years, according to health permanent secretary Linus Awute.

Okpe worked in the department of health planning research and statistics as a grade-12 senior medical officer using the credentials and name of a Dr George Davidson Daniel, his friend and a doctor doing a residency in Jos.

Okpe, thought to be from Ogbadibo council area of Benue and a father of five, was arrested for the second time early July and paraded before press on July 7.

In equal measures, he has heaped blame on the porous system that failed to detect him for nine years and defended his action as his attempt to correct errors and expose lapses.

An Abuja high court last Tuesday granted his bail application for N1m, but the court will hear the case on October 10.

Source: DailyTrust, HWN Africa.