….At Least Three Struck Off Medical Register, 10 Suspended In One Year
… Cases Expose Misconduct Ranging From Unauthorised Practice To Reckless Driving, Prescription Abuse
Daud Olatunji
At least 16 Nigerian doctors practising in the United Kingdom were sanctioned by the country’s Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service between July 2025 and July 2026, with offences ranging from fraud and rape to theft, unauthorised medical practice, reckless driving and prescription-related misconduct.
A review of decisions published by the UK Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, MPTS, showed that most of the Nigerian doctors were suspended, while some had their names permanently removed from the UK medical register.
The MPTS is the adjudication body responsible for conducting hearings and determining the fitness to practise of doctors referred to it by the General Medical Council, GMC.
Of the 18 Nigerians whose cases were identified during the period, 10 were suspended, at least three were struck off the medical register, while one received a warning.
The tribunal handled about 260 new hearings during the period under review, most of which did not involve Nigerian doctors. However, records showed that it heard at least one case involving a Nigerian doctor in every month except January.
One of the most serious cases involved Olubunmi Adeagbo-Sheikh, a Nigerian-trained doctor whose name was erased from the UK medical register after the tribunal found him guilty of misconduct linked to a £11,000 Universal Credit fraud.
Adeagbo-Sheikh, who trained at Igbinedion University, Edo State, and later worked as a gastroenterologist at Orpington Hospital in London, was found to have fraudulently obtained the benefits between September 2018 and September 2019 using a fake tenancy agreement.
The tribunal described his conduct as “fraud from start to finish” and said it breached the standards expected under Good Medical Practice.
According to the tribunal, Adeagbo-Sheikh submitted an application for Universal Credit in August 2018, claiming about £900 monthly rent despite allegedly providing a false address and forged tenancy documents.
He subsequently received housing-related benefits for 13 months.
Following his arrest in October 2019, police reportedly recovered WhatsApp conversations relating to the fraud, the forged tenancy agreement and a fake curriculum vitae from his device.
He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 12-month Community Order and 100 hours of unpaid work.
The tribunal was also critical of his failure to promptly notify the GMC of his conviction.
It said Adeagbo-Sheikh’s dishonesty was “premeditated and persistent”, concluding that he could no longer remain registered as a doctor.
The tribunal also rejected his claim that he intended to stop receiving the benefits once he started working.
It said it was of the view, having considered his oral evidence, that he “would likely not have stopped voluntarily and not until he was found out.”
The tribunal further questioned the doctor’s submission of reports and testimonials which it found had been prepared with significant assistance from Artificial Intelligence.
It estimated that only about “five and a half pages” of one document were likely to have been written by Adeagbo-Sheikh, while “the remaining 16 and a half pages” appeared to have been produced with AI support.
The tribunal concluded that he lacked “full insight” into his misconduct and ordered that his name be erased from the UK medical register.
Another Nigerian doctor, Aloaye Foy-Yamah, a University of Benin graduate who practised as a gynaecologist in England for more than 14 years, was struck off following a tribunal finding that he had raped a woman.
The incident reportedly occurred in November 2018 at the doctor’s residence, where the woman, identified in the tribunal records as Ms A, was staying.
The tribunal heard that she had rejected his advances before he sexually assaulted her.
Although Lancashire Police had previously investigated the matter without bringing criminal charges, an independent panel later found, on the “balance of probabilities”, that Foy-Yamah was guilty of rape.
An earlier tribunal had suspended him for 12 months, describing the incident as a “one-off”.
In May 2026, the new tribunal concluded that Foy-Yamah posed a continuing risk to women and ordered that his name be removed from the medical register.
The tribunal also struck off Joseph Onwude, a Nigerian gynaecologist trained at the University of Ibadan, over persistent dishonesty, unauthorised medical practice and a criminal conviction for pretending to be licensed.
The GMC had withdrawn Onwude’s licence in 2021 after he failed to submit mandatory returns.
Despite the withdrawal, he continued operating a private medical practice.
Records showed that in 2022 he issued private prescriptions to patients and performed an HRT implant procedure on a patient at a clinic in Suffolk.
The GMC subsequently imposed a suspension order on his registration.
But the tribunal found that he continued to practise despite the restriction.
At one point, after a pharmacist refused to dispense a prescription issued by him, Onwude reportedly told the patient that he was entitled to prescribe and advised the patient to take the prescription elsewhere.
The tribunal described his conduct as “dishonest.”
A Suffolk Magistrates’ Court later convicted him, while the Ipswich Crown Court dismissed his appeal.
He was ordered to pay £1,200 compensation to the patient involved in the unlicensed procedure and fined £180.
The MPTS subsequently ruled that his fitness to practise was impaired and ordered his erasure from the medical register.
Another Nigerian doctor, Sandra Ndirika, a urology trainee at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton, was suspended after being convicted of stealing from a patient and a colleague.
The tribunal heard that Ndirika stole £30 from a patient’s wallet and cloned the patient’s bank card before using it to make online purchases.
She was also found to have stolen a colleague’s purse and used the bank card inside it to order food online.
She was convicted by Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court and sentenced to about four months in prison in December 2023.
The tribunal subsequently suspended her for 18 months.
It described her criminal conviction and conduct as “extremely serious”, saying they breached the “fundamental tenets” of the medical profession.
Ifeanyi Ntomchukwu, who worked as a senior registrar at Royal Derby Maternity Hospital, was suspended for two months after being convicted of multiple driving offences.
The tribunal heard that between July and September 2024, he was caught driving at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour despite not being fully licensed.
He was also found to have repeatedly driven unsupervised while holding only a provisional licence.
He was convicted of eight offences and fined £4,307.
The tribunal also found that he delayed informing the GMC of his conviction for nearly four months.
It ruled that his conduct “severely undermined public confidence in the medical profession.”
The tribunal suspended Tijjani Shehu, a doctor at King’s Mill Hospital, for 12 months after finding that he failed to properly assess a seriously ill patient before providing treatment.
The case involved a patient suffering from a severe bacterial infection that had developed into sepsis.
According to the tribunal records, Shehu failed to adequately consider the patient’s symptoms and medical history or explore an alternative diagnosis.
The patient died hours after arriving at the hospital.
The hospital attributed the death to “toxic shock syndrome” and “necrotising fasciitis.”
However, the tribunal did not find that Shehu caused or contributed to the patient’s death.
Rather, it found that his failure contributed to a delay in reaching the correct diagnosis and treatment.
Another Nigerian doctor, Anthony Shonde, a gastroenterologist at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, was suspended for nine months over excessive prescriptions of potent opioid drugs.
The tribunal found that between February and April 2020, while working for Letter Box Meds, Shonde issued more than 1,000 prescriptions containing excessive quantities of potent opiates.
It also found that he frequently failed to obtain adequate clinical histories before prescribing the drugs.
…Doctor Sanctioned Over Hard Drugs
The MPTS also suspended Chikaodinaka Okolo, a graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, over possession of a Class A drug and other prescription-related misconduct.
The tribunal found that in 2016, Okolo had self-prescribed drugs and issued prescriptions in the names of former patients and people who had never attended his unit.
He also issued prescriptions in the names of fictitious doctors.
The tribunal further noted that he received a police caution in April 2018 over possession of a Class A drug.
Other Nigerians whose cases were considered by the tribunal included Charles Anigala, Moboladale Ojutiku, Olusola Sanusi, John Akumabor and Anthony Odume, who were also sanctioned for various professional misconduct.
Meanwhile, Ufunwen Osayi, a Nigerian doctor who produced inaccurate autopsy results, escaped suspension or erasure and was instead issued a warning.
The tribunal concluded that his actions amounted to honest clinical errors caused by poor judgment and “inadequate attention to templates”, rather than “deliberate dishonesty, cover-up, or bad faith.”
The tribunal also rejected restoration applications by Maduka Ogwueleka and Samuel Olatigbe, who had previously been struck off the UK medical register.
The disciplinary cases come amid a sustained migration of Nigerian health professionals to the United Kingdom.
The UK remains one of the leading destinations for Nigerian health workers, with Nigerians among the five largest employee groups in the National Health Service in 2024.
More than 5,600 Nigerian doctors reportedly moved to the UK within the last decade.
The movement has intensified concerns over Nigeria’s worsening doctor-to-patient ratio and the loss of experienced medical personnel to richer countries.
Unlike Nigeria, where disciplinary proceedings by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria are not routinely available in a comprehensive public database, the UK publishes detailed decisions of its medical tribunal.
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria is responsible for regulating doctors and dentists in the country, including disciplinary proceedings through its Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.
However, a review of the MDCN website found no comparable publicly accessible database containing comprehensive records of disciplinary hearings and decisions.
Health experts have repeatedly linked medical errors and professional misconduct to weaknesses in the enforcement of patient safety measures and professional standards.
The UK cases also highlight the stricter regulatory scrutiny faced by Nigerian doctors who migrate to the country.
Source : Premium Times
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