Exclusive: Alleged Fake Medical Report: ICPC Reports El-Rufai’s Doctor to Medical and Dental Council

The Medical Practitioners Investigating Panel is now expected to probe the allegations against Mr Abubakar.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has petitioned the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), seeking the professional sanction of Bello Abubakar, the oncologist accused of forging the medical report used to seek bail for former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai.

In a letter to the Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Investigation Panel, the anti-graft agency’s chairman requested that a formal complaint be lodged against Mr Abubakar for acts of professional misconduct, citing an affidavit dated 7 July 2026 before the High Court of Nasarawa State.

The petition, reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, urges the panel to conduct “a thorough and swift investigation” into the allegations against the professor, who is a Chief Consultant Clinical/Radiation Oncologist of the National Hospital, Abuja.

MDCN is the professional body responsible for regulating the practice of medicine, dentistry and alternative medicine in Nigeria.

The council was established under the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act, Cap 221 (now Cap M8), Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990.

It has the responsibility to investigate ethical complaints and enforce professional conduct. The Act empowers the council to draw up and periodically review a code of conduct for medical and dental practice in Nigeria.

To enforce this code, MDCN has two disciplinary organs: the Medical Practitioners Investigating Panel, which probes allegations of misconduct, and the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, which adjudicates cases referred to it.

An acknowledgement copy of the complaint shows the MDCN received the ICPC complaint against Mr Abubakar on 8 July. The Medical Practitioners Investigating Panel is now expected to probe the allegations against Mr Abubakar.

The affidavit

The affidavit backing the petition was deposed to by Alex Omamuli, an ICPC investigator who was part of the team that probed corruption and abuse-of-office allegations against Mr El-Rufai between 2024 and 2025.

According to the affidavit, Mr El-Rufai, who is standing trial before the Federal High Court in Kaduna and the Kaduna State High Court, filed a bail application on health grounds and presented a medical report dated 10 June to support it.

The medical report was issued on the letterhead of the National Hospital, Abuja, and signed by Mr Abubakar, who described his diagnosis of Mr El-Rufai’s condition and claimed it was based on the former governor’s medical records at the hospital.

The investigator said the ICPC, in the course of its probe, wrote to the Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital on 17 June, asking the hospital to verify the report and clarify the circumstances under which Mr El-Rufai, then in the commission’s custody, was consulted.

In its response dated 18 June, the hospital’s management, led by its Chief Medical Director, Muhammad Mahmud, told the ICPC that no hospital number was quoted on the report and that a search of its electronic medical records, using different permutations of Mr El-Rufai’s name, returned no match.

The hospital said Mr El-Rufai was not a registered patient and that it could not identify any visit by him to any department or doctor at the facility. It added that it had no record of the physical examination, laboratory or radiological investigation, or clinical history that ought to have preceded the diagnosis contained in the report.

The hospital further stated it was unaware of the report until the ICPC presented it, and that although the document bore its letterhead, it was issued without the knowledge or authorisation of the hospital’s management. The hospital also confirmed that Mr Abubakar is a retired officer of the institution but is currently engaged by the hospital on contract.

No further examination conducted, ICPC says

The affidavit further stated that Mr El-Rufai, who has been in ICPC detention since February, was examined at the ICPC detention facility in accordance with standard procedure, in the presence of a medical practitioner of his choice, and that the examination did not disclose any symptoms linked to the diagnosis in the disputed report.

Citing information from the commission’s resident doctor, Ebenezer Ozomata, the affidavit said Mr Abubakar visited Mr El-Rufai at the ICPC headquarters only twice, on 8 and 18 June 2026, and that on both occasions, a nurse or duty doctor merely checked his blood pressure, with no further examination carried out.

The affidavit added that no blood, urine, tissue or other bodily sample was ever taken from Mr El-Rufai by Mr Abubakar throughout his detention, and that regular examinations by both his personal physicians and in-house doctors turned up no symptoms matching the alleged diagnosis.

The ICPC investigator concluded that Mr Abubakar issued a medical report and an expert opinion concerning a person who was not a patient of the National Hospital, without clinical records, examination, or investigation to support them, and did so on the hospital’s letterhead without its knowledge or authority.

Mr Abubakar is currently in ICPC custody and could not be reached to comment on the allegations and the latest petition to the MDCN.

Background

PREMIUM TIMES had earlier reported that the ICPC filed a four-count charge against Mr Abubakar, accusing him of forging the medical report to help secure Mr El-Rufai’s bail on health grounds in a separate case, marked KDH/KAD/ICPC/02/2026, pending before the Kaduna State High Court.

According to the charge sheet, Mr Abubakar authored the report, titled “Medical Report and Expert Opinion for Urgent Medical Intervention” and dated 10 June 2026 — knowing its contents were false- and presented it to a Commissioner for Oaths in Kaduna State before it was filed in court.

The first count accuses him of giving false information with the intent to mislead a public officer, contrary to Section 17(1)(c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000. The second alleges he used his position as a medical consultant to confer an unfair advantage on himself by knowingly issuing the false report, contrary to Section 19 of the same Act.

The third count accuses Mr Abubakar of conspiring with one Aliyu Bala to fabricate false information by authoring the report to enable Mr Bala to depose a further affidavit supporting the bail application, contrary to Section 79 of the Penal Code. The fourth accuses him of dishonestly presenting the report as though it carried the National Hospital’s authority, an offence under Sections 362 and 364 of the Penal Code.

Court filings show the National Hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Mr Mahmud, is expected to testify that Mr Abubakar issued the report without conducting the required medical examination and handed it to Mr El-Rufai’s family to support the bail bid. He is also expected to tell the court that the hospital did not authorise the report and that investigations established it was false and did not follow due process.

Mr Abubakar is presumed innocent of the charges unless found guilty by the court.

Mr El-Rufai is facing multiple corruption-related prosecutions instituted by the ICPC. He has denied the allegations, pleaded not guilty in the various cases, and repeatedly accused the federal and Kaduna governments of using the prosecutions to keep him in detention.

Source: PremiumTimes