According to Daily Nigerian, the husband of the patient, simply identified as Alhaji Shehu, said he was referred to the doctor by a family friend when his wife was diagnosed with fibroids late last year. A couple of months after the operation, he said the doctor called him on the phone, requesting that he send his wife for “further medical examination” the next day.
“He called me one Friday afternoon requesting me to send my wife to him for further medical examination on Saturday 10am. Unknown to me that the doctor had evil plan to rape my wife, I did as requested.
“When she woke up at 7pm on that Saturday, she discovered that Dr Tijjani Ahmad Faruq (TJ) had sexual intercourse with her while she was unconscious.
“When she asked him why he did that that to her, he gave no reason, but only apologized and pleaded with her to forgive him. When she asked Dr Tijjani about the family planning pills she was supposed to use in order to prevent immediate conception after the fibroid operation, he said she won’t be able to conceive again.
“A series of womb ultrasounds carried out at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) and Zafafi Hospital of Bello Way Sokoto showed that Dr Tijjani has instead of only removing the fibroid complained of, negligently sewed and blocked my wife’s womb, thereby rendering her permanently sterile. But since that fateful day, I noticed that my wife had refused to visit his hospital whenever I directed her to do so. When she finally revealed the shocking news to me that her doctor raped her and everything that transpired on that day, I instructed her to go once again in order to have his confessions on tape.
“During the sting operation I arranged with my wife to get a proof, my wife confronted him again on why he raped her, the doctor was heard on tape saying ‘this will be the end of your marriage if you tell your husband’.
“Even on that very day she went to secretly have his confessions on tape, he struggled to rape her but she refused,” Shehu said.
In a petition written to the Commissioner for Health, Sokoto State, the lawyer of the victim, Muhammad Mansur-Aliyu, demanded justice for his client, saying the doctor should be made to face the full wrath of the law.
According to Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria, the doctor risks delisting from medical register and prosecution.
“Any registered practitioner who abuses his professional position, for example by committing adultery or indulging in any improper conduct or by maintaining an improper association with a patient, is liable to have his name erased from the Register. In this connection, any finding of fact which has been made in proceedings in the High Court of an appeal from a decision in such proceedings shall be conclusive evidence of the fact in any trial held by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal,” a provision in the Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria said.
The accused doctor had initially denied the allegations, but when the tape of his conversation with his patient was played to him by the investigative panel, he confessed to having sex with her.
Confirming the incident, the state commissioner of Health, Ali Inname, said the ministry had constituted a panel to investigate the matter.
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