KADUNA State governor Nasir El-Rufai has said Nigerian youths are unfit to rule the nation because they lack the experience required to carry out the tasks such a position will require.
El-Rufai described the country as a complex society that requires experience.
The governor said this on Wednesday, February 1, during a Channels TV Sunrise Daily interview.
According to him, the younger generation who want to rule the nation find it difficult to convince the political class and the populace of their experience to hold the country together.
He said, “It requires a track record of performance that a 50-year-old cannot have and cannot convince the political class or general public.
“Instinctively, I will love to see younger people at different levels of leadership, and we have tried to do that in Kaduna. We brought in young people who have performed wonderfully, and a few have disappointed, as is usual.
“We have brought in women, and they have done very well. A few have disappointed.”
El-Rufai said septuagenarians running for office are transitional leaders who will usher youths into the political position and build capacity.
“I hope is that whoever is President of Nigeria and I can say if Asiwaju wins or when Asiwaju wins because I am confident, he will win.
“You will see an extensive collection of young people in the administration because Asiwaju sees his role as that of a transitional leader to fix some of the problems we have but build a new leadership class.
“That is the only way because it is challenging for a 40 or 50-year-old to convince Nigerians or those of us in the political system that he has the experience,” he added.
THE Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has blamed the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the current fuel scarcity in the country.
Speaking on Arise TV on Wednesday, February 1, the National Operation Controller of IPMAN, Mike Osatuyi, said IPMAN is not responsible for the scarcity and smuggling of fuel across borders.
Osatuyi also denied reports that IPMAN is involved in hoarding fuel and other petroleum products.
“NUPENG knows where the product is but we don’t know where to get it. NUPENG is involved in the problem, we are not hoarding like my station now I don’t have the product if I have the product I will like to turn it over within two, three days because we have to pay bank loans.
“The 1.3 billion litres that they say we don’t have it if we have it will the whole country be dry? Go to South-South, South-West everywhere in the whole country is dry. They know where the product is but we don’t know where to get it,” he stressed.
Osatuyi also associated the scarcity of fuel with the recurring delay by the NNPC in delivering petroleum products on time.
“Although we have been complaining that they don’t give us this product directly, the NNPC has now agreed to open about three or four more depots for IPMAN to be loading this product. There is what this called an express platform put on by NNPC retail but when you order and pay you don’t get it for one, two months because I want to pay 180 or 175 naira.
“But since they have agreed to open more depots for IPMAN to be buying at the official price it is better and this is what they should have done.”
Osatuyi further denied the involvement of IPMAN in the smuggling of fuel to neighbouring countries.
“IPMAN don’t drive trucks so we don’t know about smuggling. If they want to stop smuggling today let NUPENG tell their members to stop driving trucks across the border,” he said.
Osatuyi however, urged the government to massively import fuel to reduce the price of fuel and the prevailing scarcity.
“The government should do massive importation to reduce the price of fuel. Whatever income generated from this subsidy should be channelled towards renewing and reducing the suffering of Nigerians by investing in critical infrastructure for Nigerians like railway. We have to benefit more in removing subsidy and deregulation now”
THE Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to investigate allegations of voter register manipulation across the country.
The National Director of Social Communications at the Secretariat, Mike Umoh, said the CSN is aware of credible allegations of manipulation of the electoral register in different parts of the country.
Umoh said this while speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, January 31.
“We are aware of credible allegations of manipulating the electoral register in different parts of Nigeria. We implore INEC to investigate these allegations diligently and to ensure that to the extent that they are well-founded, anyone implicated is brought to account in a timely fashion.
“Furthermore, it has been discovered that multiple registrations happened alongside willful and incorrect entries of voters’ information; we implore the Commission to ensure that the necessary due diligence is observed in the accurate documentation and cleaning up of the voters’ register.”
He said this would engender transparency and ensure trust in the electoral process.
Umoh also urged INEC to ensure that all the bimodal voter automated systems (BVAS) machines work in all the 176,846 polling units on election days.
“We call on the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to eliminate the obstacles of high transaction costs associated with collecting the PVCs all over the country.
“In order to guarantee a level field of participation for all voters, INEC has a huge burden to guarantee that BVAS will work on election day in all the 176,846 polling units across the country, as well as the efficient electronic transmission of results from the polling units. This will engender transparency and ensure trust in the electoral process,” Umoh said.
He added that INEC should ensure efficient transmission of results.
AHEAD of the forthcoming 2023 general elections, President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to tighten surveillance at Nigerian borders.
This was disclosed in a statement on Tuesday, January 31, issued in Abuja by Sola Fasure, the Media Adviser to the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.
According to the statement, the minister disclosed the directive while inaugurating the Katsina NIS Command office, which coincided with the roll-out of the enhanced e-Passport in the state.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that Nigerian borders should be made impenetrable to foreign bodies who might want to come in and manipulate the election process or engage in other nefarious activities.”
“The order from President Muhammadu Buhari is that between now and the time we will conclude elections, you must make sure our borders are secured,” Aregbesola said.
The minister directed officers to ensure that illegal immigrants do not create problems during and after the elections.
Aregbesola also charged them with ensuring the documentation of all migrants.
He said that Katsina State had 400 kilometres of border lines and 14 border positions which the Service needed to protect.
In the same vein, he disclosed that the government was upgrading the capacity of the NIS to control the nation’s borders effectively.
“We are deploying electronic digital technology to ensure 24/7 surveillance of the 5,000 kilometres border lines,” the Minister added.
Aregbesola added that the Federal Government has already awarded the digital technology contract that will enable the Comptroller-General to see what is happening anytime at any border point.
The Secretary to the Katsina State Government, Muntari Lawal, who represented the state governor, Aminu Masari, commended the NIS for the project and affirmed the administration’s willingness to support the Service to secure the nation’s borders.
THE Nigerian Government has launched a new passport front office in the Alimosho Area of Lagos to fast-track the application, processing and collecting of the Nigerian international passport for citizens seeking to travel abroad.
Lagos State accounts for 50 per cent of all passport applications nationwide and applicants from the state had complained about the extreme difficulty of getting a passport, including cases of administrative delays and extortion.
During the launch of the new passport office on Monday, January 30, the Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola noted that due to the high demand recorded in the state, there was need to set up more centres to address the shortage and decongest the traffic at the three existing offices in the Ikoyi, FESTAC and Alausa areas of the state.
“We certainly need more of this in Lagos. This is because half of all passport applications are made in Lagos. At no time are less than 100,000 applicants from Lagos on the NIS portal applying for passports.
“We will therefore need not less than 15 of these front offices in Lagos alone, to be able to cut the application waiting period to one week,” Aregbesola said.
The newly set up passport office in Alimosho becomes the 18th of such command structures established across the country by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) since 2019.
The Federal Government due to funding constraint is considering a public-private partnership arrangement to set up more passport front offices in urban centres where applications for passports are high.
“Applications have been increasing every year at an unprecedented rate, due to the tendency of many Nigerians wanting to travel outside the country and those who want to use it as means of identification,” the minister noted.
On his part, the Comptroller-General of the NIS Jere Idris described the office as a “legacy project” that will bring efficient services to Lagos and its environs.
Capital cities play an important role in the socio-economic development of every country. People generally move to cities where there are opportunities.
Accra, Ghana’s capital, demonstrates this pull effect – and the problems it can create, like congestion and development planning issues.
One of the consequences has been regular flooding, which has claimed lives and property. Over the years, the city authorities have tried to decongest Accra, without success. The city is now demolishing illegal structures, especially those close to waterways.
Some people have suggested that Accra’s congestion problem could be solved if the capital were to be moved to another city. Others disagree.
Our position in this ongoing debate is informed by a six-year-old study one of us conducted comparing Accra with Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Nigeria moved its administrative capital out of Lagos to Abuja in 1991.
The goal of the research was to make recommendations for the effective functioning of capital cities. We believe the findings are still relevant.
The study found that Accra was congested because too many facilities and services were concentrated in the city. We conclude that, instead of relocating the capital from Accra, its various roles could be shared among various regional capitals. Accra could keep its political role, but some of its facilities and services should be distributed around the country.
Accra’s many functions
Ghana’s capital city has multiple functions: educational, commercial, entertainment and administrative.
As an educational centre, Accra has about 40 tertiary institutions. The seat of government, parliament house and the supreme court of Ghana are also in Accra, giving it an administrative and political role. The major sporting activities in Ghana are soccer, athletics and boxing. The country’s only boxing arenas are in Accra. The city also has the Ohene Gyan Sports Stadium and the Olympic Stadium (under construction).
Ghana’s population by region. Authors
Reputable research institutes such as Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research are located in Accra. The headquarters of major religious organisations – such as the Christian Council of Ghana and the Office of the National Chief Imam – are also located here.
Some facilities that could have been located in other cities are all concentrated in Accra. Overall, the city serves as the country’s commercial, manufacturing and communication centre.
This has attracted major private companies to locate their headquarters in the capital. Ghana Stock Exchange, the country’s principal facilitator of the development of the capital market, also has its headquarters in Accra.
The combination of its political role and all the other facilities and services in the city has attracted people from all parts of the country. According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, the Greater Accra Region is the most populous region in Ghana, with a population of over 5 million people. The region, with a population density of 1,200 people per square kilometer, is also the most densely populated region in Ghana.
This density has led to traffic congestion and overcrowding. On average, traffic across the major highways in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area grew from 2.5% to 14.8% per annum.
The multi-functional nature of Accra has led to pressure on land resources which has also resulted in encroachment of green areas and wetlands. The result is that parts of the city are unsafe to live in. The perennial floods which claim human lives and destroy properties have been attributed to the city’s development and spatial planning problems.
Solutions
Relocating capital cities does not necessarily solve the problem of congestion in the long term if the fundamental causes of the congestion are not addressed. For example, the relocation of Nigerian’s capital city to Abuja did not solve congestion in Lagos.
We argue that a more feasible option for Accra is to change the role of the city from a multi-functional role to a political role.
National policies should focus on de-concentration by relocating some of the facilities and services that are currently in the capital but do not require direct access to the executive. These may include the headquarters of some government institutions, nongovernmental organisations, universities and research institutes, religious organisations and private companies.
The relocation of the headquarters of the Ghana Cocoa Board from Accra, for example, could be taken into consideration as Accra is not a cocoa producing region. Such an institution could be moved to a place where cocoa is produced.
The headquarters of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation could be moved to the western region of Ghana, where oil is drilled. Universities located in Accra could be encouraged to establish branches in other parts of the country, thus reducing the number of students on the Accra campuses. This would help promote spatial equity in Ghana in terms of geographic access to university education.
There could be incentive packages for institutions to establish their headquarters outside the capital. Those in the capital could be charged a special congestion levy. Finally, there should be a conscious effort to give functional roles to all the 16 regional capitals in Ghana. The functional roles can include commercial capital, defence capital, entertainment capital and sports capital. The decentralisation of facilities and services would help distribute opportunities – and people – across the country.
NIGERIA, with 74,059 inmates, is currently the 27th country with the highest number of prisoners globally.
According toWorld Prison Brief (WPB), an institution collating data on prisons worldwide, the nation has fewer prisoners than many populous countries across the globe.
However, the population of prisoners each country keeps does not commensurate with the inmates’ welfare, rights and prison infrastructures.
The WPB’s data tally with those on Statista, another credible data hub.
“The World Prison Brief (WPB) is a unique database that provides free access to information about prison systems throughout the world. Country information is updated on a monthly basis, using data largely derived from governmental or other official sources,” the organisation said on its website.
In Nigeria, there were 74,059 inmates as of January 31. The country has the highest number of inmates in West Africa but ranks seventh on the continent, coming behind South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco and Rwanda.
South Africa – the 12th on the log – has 144,938 prisoners. China has the highest number with 1,690,000 prisoners, followed by the United States of America, 1,675,400; Brazil, 835,643; India, 554 034; Russian Federation, 439 453; Turkey, 314 502; Thailand, 285 572; and Indonesia 275 518.
Others before South Africa are Mexico, 230 000; Iran, 189 000; and the Philippines, 166 912.
Before Nigeria are Vietnam, 125 697; Egypt, 119 000; Argentina, 114 074; Ethiopia, 110 000; Myanmar, 100 324; Columbia, 98 242; Algeria, 94 749; and Peru, 90 293.
There are also Morocco, 88 941; Pakistan, 85 670; United Kingdom, 82 176; Bangladesh, 81 156; Malaysia, 76 336; and Rwanda, 76 099.
The ICIR reports that with South Africa’s present 61.2 million (61,232,451) population (on Wordometer), dividing the country’s population by its number of prisoners shows that one out of its 422 population lives in prison.
In Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent at 219.3 million (219,305,878), there is a prisoner among every 2,961 persons. The nation has 74,059 prisoners.
China has a population of 1.4 billion (1,453,629,085), with one out of every 860 people jailed, given its 1,690,000 inmates.
The United States of America, currently with 335.9 million (335,999,183) people, has 1.6 million (1,675,400) of its population in prison, making one out of every 200 persons in the country serve a jail term.
The pattern of Nigeria’s prisoners population since 1982
There were 41,034 inmates in Nigeria in 1982. The figure jumped to 54,079 in 1990 but reduced to 41,482 in 1993.
It rose again to 52,000 in 1996 but shrank to 44,450 in 2000. In 2004, there was a further decline in the population from 40,048 in 2002 to 38,999 in 2004.
Meanwhile, since former President Goodluck Jonathan took over power in 2010, till 2023 when President Muhammadu Buhari is rounding off his eight-year maximum terms of four-year apiece, there has been continuous growth in the number of inmates kept across the nation’s 253 custodial centres, from 46,586 in 2010 to 74,059 in January 2023.
Females versus male inmates
Data from countries show that more men get sentenced for crimes. In July 2022, The ICIRreported that only two per cent of inmates in Nigerian prisons were women.
In China, females constitute 8.6 per cent (2018), US, 10.2 per cent (2019); Brazil, 5.1 per cent (2021); India, 4.1 per cent (2021); Russia, 8.9 per cent (2022); Turkey, 3.9 per cent (2022); Thailand, 11.5 per cent (2021); Indonesia, 4.9 per cent (2022); and Mexico, 5.6 per cent (2022).
Rising inmates versus growing crimes in Nigeria
Nigeria has witnessed unprecedented crimes, namely terrorism, banditry involving abduction and kidnapping for ransom, inter-communal attacks and killings, money ritual, armed robbery, looting of public funds and other crimes in the past decade more than any other years in the nation’s history.
These may have led to the rising inmate population in the country. However, many Nigerians believe the government is not thorough in getting criminals punished by the law courts. They also frown at the government for illegally keeping people in prison without trial.
Citizens have variously accused the government of shielding public officials who loot the treasury from the law courts or making them get punishment much too low for the offence(s) they committed. Citizens have also expressed worry over the government’s handling of leading terrorists and criminal gangs in prisons.
Between 2020 and 2022, there were about a dozen attacks on prisons in Nigeria, leading to the escape of thousands of inmates. While some of the escapees were rearrested, others remain at large to date.
Many escaped prisoners are terrorists and other inmates who committed heinous crimes.
The most recent jailbreak was at Kuje Correctional Facility in Abuja, the nation’s capital. The attackers freed about 69 suspected Boko Haram terrorists held at the facility, as well as some other inmates.
The government said 879 inmates, including all the Boko Haram suspects, escaped.
The onslaught led to the death of five persons, including an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC) and four inmates.
THE Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has assured Nigerians that banks will continue to accept the N1000, N500 and N200 notes being rested after the February 10 deadline.
Emefiele gave the assurance today when he appeared before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the currency redesign and naira swap policy.
The House had last week invited the CBN governor for discussions as worries mounted across the country over scarcity of the redesigned N1000, N500 and N200 notes and the January 31 deadline dawned.
When Emefiele failed to honour the invitation last Thursday, the House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, threatened to arrest him.
Emefiele, however, announced a 10-day extension to the deadline, with the old notes acceptable as legal tender till February 10.
The CBN governor, interacting with the legislators today, made reference to the CBN Act which mandates the apex bank to continue to accept old notes after their legal tender expiration.
Section 20 (3) of the CBN Act states: ‘Notwithstanding sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section, the bank shall have power, if directed to do so by the president and after giving reasonable notice in that behalf, to call in any of its notes or coins on payment of the face value thereof, and any note or coin with respect to which a notice has been given under this sub-section, shall, on the expiration of the notice, cease to be legal tender, but, subject to section 22 of this act, shall be redeemed by the bank upon demand.’
Emefiele explained that even after the old currency had lost its legal tender status, the CBN is mandated to collect them.
“I stand with the House of Representatives on this. What does that mean? It could (old notes) have lost its legal tender status, which means we have moved on. But if you have your money that you have not been able to send to the bank, we will certainly give you the opportunity to bring them back into the CBN to redeem it. Either you pay it to your bank account or you want to do exchange, we will give you. You will not lose your money. This is the assurance I give to Nigerians,” he said.
THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would be meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to ensure adequate fuel supply during the forthcoming general elections.
The INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, made this known today in Abuja at a consultative meeting with officials of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
Yakubu said that the meeting was to fashion out ways of ensuring adequate supply of fuel to prevent disruption of INEC plans for the elections.
“The Commission shares your concern about the fuel situation in the country and its impact on transportation on election day.
“The truth is that our arrangements may be negatively affected by the non-availability of products.
“For this reason, the Commission will this afternoon meet with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to look into ways to ameliorate the situation,” he said.
Yakubu assured Nigerians of continuous engagement with every national institution for the success of the elections.
A PRIVATE hospital run by a man, Jongsu Kim, who claims to be Chinese but is a North Korean, has been operating illegally in the heart of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, for four years, The ICIR exclusively reports.
The hospital enjoys patronage from highly placed individuals, particularly public officials, including those who work in the presidency. Daily, officials in SUVs bearing FGN plate numbers and armed policemen drive in and out of the hospital premises.
A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, is one of the leading figures said to be seeking medical care at the facility.
In addition to Aondoakaa, at least four lawyers who are Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) receive treatment at the hospital.
The ICIR’s checks showed that at least three other expatriates whose nationalities could not be verified because they refused to speak also work and live at the facility.
Kim, a doctor, leads the team. He also lives at the hospital. Clients pay for services the facility renders into Kim’s personal account rather than the hospital’s.
The hospital does not have a signboard. It did not have a bank account when the larger part of this investigation was carried out between June and October 2022 and does not pay tax to the government as required by law.
For instance, the hospital does not pay the “Pay As You Earn” (PAYE) tax to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Internal Revenue Service (IRS), even though it has Tax Identification Number 20913237. PAYE is the tax companies deduct from their employees’ salaries and remit to the government.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said the Federal Government exempts hospitals and schools from taxes, but they must provide a report of their annual returns. The FIRS in Abuja said only the hospital could provide evidence of submission of the annual return report.
Asked how the hospital got its TIN, the FIRS said companies get TIN from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) during registration.
The Private Health Establishments Registration and Monitoring Committee (PHERMC), a department in charge of private hospital registration and monitoring in the nation’s capital, confirmed to The ICIR that Lilu Hospital never applied for registration in city and runs illegally.
The hospital is also not in the Nigeria Health Facility Registry, where data on all health facilities in the country are domiciled.
Another observation by The ICIR is that only Kim comes out of the hospital in the daytime; his colleagues are usually indoors.
Kim drives an SUV with a diplomatic number plate, a privilege the Nigerian government accords only diplomats.
Kim’s SUV carrying the diplomatic number plate
While Kim claims he is Chinese, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) told The ICIR that the number plate on his vehicle belongs to the North Korean Embassy.
The Chinese Embassy does not know Kim and his hospital. Two spokespersons at the embassy, Huang Shuming and another who identified himself as Zhang, told The ICIR reporter they did not know Kim and his hospital.
They also said the number plate on his SUV did not belong to their embassy.
The North Korean Embassy refused to speak about the issue when contacted by The ICIR.
The reporter was at the North Korean Embassy in Abuja and met with one of the country’s nationals who put a call across to her superior.
The man, Kim, gave the reporter his phone number to send his request through Whatsapp.
Kim has since not responded to the request. He did not also respond to text messages or pick up several calls the reporter made.
Encounter with Lilu Specialist Hospital
The ICIR noticed the hospital’s operations in early 2022, especially the calibre of vehicles and personalities that patronised it and commissioned a reporter to look into what was happening at the facility.
After making some findings from the authorities about the hospital, the reporter visited the facility as a patient and ran some checks.
The reporter’s registration card at the hospital
Kim, who led his team to run the check, gave the reporter a bill of N160,000 and asked him to start treatment immediately. This is apart from the N5,000 the hospital charged the reporter for the check he ran.
The reporter paid the test bill into Kim’s account with the name Jongsu Kim. Kim said the reporter’s bill was the smallest among the scores of patients he had managed.
To prove his magnanimity, he brought out a pile of invoices and scanned through dozens of them when the reporter complained the bill was much. He counted from N160,000 to over N400,000 for each person he had treated. There were scores of invoices on his table.
Inside the illegal hospital
The three-bedroom apartment, located on the ground floor of a three-storey building, serves as a consulting ward for patients and a residence for the medical team.
The hospital has modern medical equipment that runs checks on its clients within minutes. Kim and his team make their clients lay on one of the hospital’s beds, where they apply the equipment.
Results of the checks, detailing the body’s condition, are printed from a printer in the consulting room. The cost of treatment is given only after the test is concluded. Clients pay for tests immediately after they collect their results. But they can choose to return to pay and receive the treatment later. Payment is made before treatment begins.
Entrances to the hospital rooms and other spaces on the floor are demarcated with blue curtains.
Anyone coming to the facility must remove his/her shoes and wear any of several pairs of slippers kept at the entrance after opening the main door.
Pairs of slippers at the entrance of the Lilu Specialist Hospital, Abuja. Photo credit: The ICIR
Lilu specialist hospital offers trado-medicine and therapeutic care. It does not use or prescribe orthodox medicines, Kim told the reporter.
Depending on their condition, outpatients may come to the facility for about 30 days or more for their treatment.
North Korean operating my hospital without my knowledge and authorisation – Nigerian
The ICIR began this investigation in mid-2022 but met Bartholomew Chigozie Awugozi, who claimed to be the hospital’s legal owner, on January 19, 2023, for the first time on the telephone. The organisation sought to know if he was aware of activities at the hospital.
He was shocked that the hospital he opened in Port-Harcourt years back had shut down because it wasn’t yielding returns, now runs in Abuja by people he claimed not to know.
Awugozi is based in Awka, Anambra State, where he manages his hotels. He is one of the hospital’s three directors. One of the remaining two directors is his son (Obinna Patrick), and the third is a North Korean by the name Jong Chol Ann.
Awugozi said he registered the hospital at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with his money. He claimed he engaged a North Korean he identified by first name Sin to set up the facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to him, Sin, an ophthalmologist, worked with a private eye hospital with many branches in the South-East and Abuja some years back. Sin was also a consultant to the Imo State Government House during the era of former Governor Rochas Okorocha, Awugozi said. The doctor treated Awugozi’s two eyes, and they became friends, leading to the idea of establishing the hospital.
The plan materialised, but Sin did not work at the hospital. He hired his nationals, whom Awugozi claimed could not generate any revenue for him after running the facility for a year in Port Harcourt. He then allegedly closed the hospital.
The ICIR could not establish if Kim who currently runs the facility in Abuja was among the North Koreans who ran it in Port Harcourt.
Awugozi wants the current operators of the Abuja facility arrested. “Please help me get them arrested. I’m not aware that they opened that hospital in my name. Have you investigated the certificate of incorporation?
“We had the arrangement to have a hospital about three or four years ago in Anambra state and have a branch in Rivers state. We opened the Rivers state branch (first), and they were not rendering accounts. We closed the place. They left. They told me they’d gone back to their country.
Frontage of the hospital’s premises, with the vehicle from the Presidency. Photo by The ICIR
“Surprisingly, this call came now, and you’re telling me they are operating with my name in Abuja. I’m not aware of the operations in Abuja.”
He said the hospital could not open a bank account because, as the owner, the operators knew he could authorise that the account be frozen.
“Do they have a signboard there?” he asked. The ICIR reporter responded in the negative. “That will show you that they are fake.
“If they have a signboard, anybody from my community, Lilu, in Ihiala Local Government, will see it and make it public.”
Hospital lawyer faults The ICIR’s investigation
In 2022, The ICIR contacted Kim to respond to some of the findings. He did not understand the questions because he struggles to speak English and communicates more using signs. It is thus a wonder how he communicates with patients enough to enable him to diagnose their ailments because there is no interpreter with him.
Hours later, the hospital’s lawyer, Matthias Adeyemi, arrived and asked the reporter to send the questions to him. The reporter did.
Lilu Specialist Hospital’s flier
Rather than answer the questions, Adeyemi, who said Aondoakaa, the former Attorney General, recommended him to be the hospital’s lawyer, warned that whoever attempted to disrupt the hospital’s services would have the high and mighty in the country to contend with.
The lawyer named three SANs who use the hospital in addition to Aondoakaa.
He confirmed Kim runs the hospital with his bank account.
On October 11, last year, the lawyer requested the reporter meet him in his office in the Asokoro area of the nation’s capital.
The reporter hoped the meeting would enable him to answer the questions he had sent to him. Adeyemi spoke with the reporter for over an hour on why the investigation was unnecessary, adding that the hospital would promptly address issues raised.
He promised to contact Kim to answer the questions. There was no response from him, despite a reminder the reporter sent on October 19.
However, he boasted that nobody could force Kim to talk if he chose not to. He threatened to sue The ICIR and vowed to make the organisation pay heavily if it “fails to get all its facts correct.”
Registration with the MDCN
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) registers all doctors practising in Nigeria and issues them a practising license valid for a year.
Kim hangs the license he got in 2020 on the hospital wall beside the facility’s Certificate of Incorporation from the CAC.
The ICIR’s reporter could not find his practising license for 2021 and 2022 at the hospital.
Practising license for Jongsu Kim from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for 2020 was his only licence on the hospital’s wall as of October 2022
The ICIR contacted the MDCN to confirm Kim’s registration status. The council’s Public Relations Officer, Zubaidat Abdusalaam, could not confirm if he obtained a practising license in the past two years.
However, based on the information given to the MDCN by the newspaper, the council officials stormed the hospital on Thursday, October 13.
Efforts by The ICIR to get the operation’s outcome did not yield results. Abdusalaam said she was not informed about the operation. When the reporter probed further, she said it was the organisation’s practice to make such operations secret until its investigations are concluded. Meanwhile, the hospital has continued to provide services after the MDCN’s visit.
Hospital not registered to operate in FCT – PHERMC Registrar
The Private Health Establishments Registration and Monitoring Committee (PHERMC), a department under the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Health Secretariat, is the agency that registers and monitors private hospitals’ operations in the nation’s capital.
The PHERMC, through its registrar, Ayuba Kazzah, confirmed to our reporter that the hospital never applied for registration and is not registered to operate in the city.
Days after the reporter visited his office to confirm the hospital’s registration status, Kazzah promised to check and get back to the reporter.
“After all due diligent searches, we are unable to identify any evidence of registration with or even application to the FCT PHERMC”, Kazzah replied in a text.
Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria storms Lilu Specialist Hospital in Abuja on October 20, 2022
He told the reporter during a subsequent visit to his office that every private hospital intending to practice in the FCT must follow registration procedures which he showed the reporter.
The facility must be registered with the CAC and obtain a Certificate of Incorporation of a name that specifies the type of health facility.
It must apply through its letterhead with its Board of Directors’ details and their nationalities at the bottom.
This is followed by an inspection of the proposed location for the hospital by PHERMC and other activities, which include categorisation, type of services, number of specialists, purpose-built structure, displayed signpost, and should not operate where there are offices or in a residential building.
“For a hospital to run with foreigners in Nigeria, the head of the facility must be a Nigerian. An example is Nizamiye Hospital,” Kazzah said.
When hospitals register, they must provide the list of their staff.
According to Kazzah, any hospital that flouts the guidelines will be fined N250,000.
How VIPs bring foreign hospitals to Nigeria to cut costs
A source in the medical community, who pleaded anonymity, said prominent Nigerians and government officials aid foreign doctors coming to Nigeria because they want to cut the cost of travelling abroad for treatment.
The source said no matter what anyone does to stop the operations of hospitals where those sponsored doctors work, the people who bring them into the country would have their way.
Immigration reacts
Head of the Passport Unit at the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Eno Deinde, said before any foreigners could work in Nigeria, the firms employing them must bring the expatriates’ passports to the Immigration Office to obtain ‘Subject to Regularisation’ (STR).
One of the Presidency’s vehicles at the Lilu Hospital, Abuja
“They must not come to the country as visitors but with the STR under the company’s name. The company will bring their passports to immigration for regularisation immediately after they arrive in Nigeria. Immigration must see the company’s quota, which is the number of expatriates coming.
“Quota is what gives the expatriates power to stay in Nigeria. Immigration determines the number of quotas a company gets,” she said.
Deinde explained that it is criminal for any expatriate to work in any organisation in Nigeria, such as the Lilu Hospital, without obtaining the STR.
About the hospital
Lilu Specialist Hospital was registered by the CAC on May 15, 2018, as a private company limited by shares to conduct human health activities. It has the registration number RC 1494942.
It has the following as directors and key management personnel:
Bartholomew Chigozie Awugosi(Director and shareholder)
Obinna Patrick Awugosi (Director, Secretary, and shareholder)
Jong Chol Ann (Director)
Okechukwu Ehogwu (Deponent)
The ICIR reports that the hospital’s registered operating address is 1 Umuenugwu Village in Lilu, Ihiala, Anambra State.
A check by The ICIR at the Umuenugwu community in Lilu, which bears the same name as the hospital, revealed that the hospital did not exist there. Elders of the community said that no specialist hospital ever existed in the locality and that the best health facility there was a primary health centre.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s lawyer confirmed to The ICIR on Saturday January 28, 2022 that “some” of its findings were true.
The ICIR contacted him to react to Awugozi’s claim that he owned the hospital, had run it in Port Harcourt, and was unaware it operated in Abuja.
“For me, there were a lot of developments I came to find out. I did a whole lot of investigations and all of that (after interracting with the reporter in his office). I found some credibility in some of the things you said. I also found some newer information. Honestly, I stand for some justice and some integrity. Whatever he (Awugozi) said, there is some truth in it.”
He also said the police were already involved in the matter (because The ICIR had informed the FCT IRS, PHERMC and the MDCN of the hospital’s operations during its investigation.
When told by the reporter that the hospital was still running despite the police involvement in the case, Adeyemi said, “that is where the real problem is.”
The lawyer also said that Jong Chol Ann, who is one of the hospital’s directors, is no longer in Nigeria.
What remains unclear is under whose authority the hospital’s current manager, Jongsu Kim, who drives around Abuja in a diplomatic SUV, runs the facility.
