February 24, (THEWILL) – Kubwa General Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory has stated on Wednesday that former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode was never a patient at the facility.
This was made known at the State Special Offense Court, Ikeja on Wednesday. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had arraigned the former minister before Justice Olubunmi Abike Fadipe on 12 counts of forgery.
The EFCC accused FFK of forging medical reports to mislead the court and procuring documents under false pretences, contrary to Section 369 of the Criminal Law of Lagos state, 2015.
At the resumed proceeding on Wednesday, the head of medical records at the hospital, Bassey Amah, while being led in evidence by the counsel of the EFCC, Rotimi Oyedepo, noted that FFK did not have any record with the hospital.
He said, “On October 3rd, 2021 the Kubwa General Hospital received a letter from the EFCC to investigate the autenticity of the medical reports on FFK and the investigation by the hospital revealed that Femi Fani-Kayode does not have a record with the facility.”
Amah, who further told the court that the hospital never issued any medical reports to the defendant said, “As I said earlier, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode is not our patient and he has no medical reports in our hospital. The name is not even found there.”
“The doctor that signed the medical reports is not our doctor. The number is not our hospital number.”
Earlier, FFk’s counsel, Norrison Quakers(SAN) objected to tendering of the letter of request by the EFCC to the hospital, dated October 3, 2021 and the response of the hospital dated October 13,2021.
Quakers objected on the ground that the head of the medical records was not the maker of the documents.
He said, “The witness introduced himself as Bassey Amah, he is not the maker. He can’t even give evidence on the document.”
However, the EFCC councel while responding said, “The document tendered is a public document, it emanated from the Kubwa General Hospital and the witness in the box has given the evidence on oath. He has told how they received the documents, how it was investigated and how the letter was prepared.”
Ruling on the admissibility of the document, Justice Abike Fadipe held that the hospital itself could not testify before the court.
She said, “I am not going to reject it because his name is not on it. If the maker is therefore not called at the end of the trial, I can therefore determine the weight to attach to the letter. I agree with you that he is not the maker, I agree with that.”
“The letter was issued by the medical director, the hospital itself cannot come to give evidence and can only do so via one of their human personnel. I am satisfied that the witness in the box is competent to testify.”
The case was later adjourned to February 25, 2022.
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