The federal government has suspended the medical doctor indicted in a Daily Trust investigation which exposed illegal kidney harvesting around the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, told Daily Trust that other healthcare providers who participated in the surgical removal of kidneys from victims revealed in the Daily Trust investigation, including a nephrologist and an anesthesiologist, were awaiting trial by a disciplinary tribunal.
A Daily Trust investigation: “Inside Abuja’s Kidney Market, Where the Rich Prey on the Poor”, published on December 10, 2023, exposed a black market trade in kidneys and linked the operation to a private hospital in Abuja.
The investigation by the newspaper also revealed how kidney brokers recruited boys to act as agents to lure young boys from low economic backgrounds to sell their kidneys for N1m to patients with renal failure.
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The investigation alerted the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), which launched an investigation and is presently pursuing a criminal case against the suspects.
Alausa had in January, 2024, invited Daily Trust for a briefing on the findings of the investigation. He informed the paper that the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokum, had set up a team of detectives to investigate the matter.
The minister said he had also mandated the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) to investigate the involvement of doctors and hospitals in the illegal act.
During another meeting with a team from Daily Trust on Tuesday evening, Dr Alausa said that the doctor who carried out the surgeries had been suspended while a thorough investigation report had been submitted to the Inspector General of Police.
He explained that the implicated hospital remained operational due to the absence of a legal framework to shut down such a facility, but said the ministry was proposing the setting up of the National Health Facility Regulatory Agency to be tasked with monitoring and regulating all healthcare facilities in the country.
He said, “The police have done a thorough report and it has been submitted to the IG.
The expose you did showed us that there is a gap in regulation. Until the story happened, nobody knew about this gap. We now know that there is a gap in the way health facilities are being regulated and so we plan to set up the National Healthcare Facility Regulatory Agency and a committee will be set up to create a blueprint.”
He said once the blueprint was ready, the plan would be presented to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
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