A man claiming to be a doctor has been arrested after years of duping staff of establishments keen on personnel health.
Sunday Bartholomew was first detained by management of Excel Hotel in Abuja, where he had duped staff into testing for sexually transmitted infections and paying for hepatitis vaccine, before police took custody of him yesterday evening.
Daily Trust learnt the suspect approached the hotel claiming that Centre for Hepatitis and Disease Control recommended hepatitis screening for staff, and injected those who tested negative with vaccine at N1,000 a shot.
Bartholomew told police investigators he injected a total 35 workers in days around his anti-hepatitis campaign programme, and offered antiretroviral drug Lamivudine for sale.
All women at the establishment tested positive in a “syphilis strip” test he conducted, and he asked them to meet him at a location in Apo for three doses of injections for which he charged N9,000.
He offered hair clippers for men at N4,800 which he said would help them prevent sexually transmitted infections.
The hotel got concerned when its staff began coming down with unexplained reactions, Excel manager Joy Nyesom told investigators.
A female staff fainted twice on Monday, others complained of diarrhoea and some men complained of severe waist pain.
Daily Trust learnt the suspect approached the hotel claiming that Centre for Hepatitis and Disease Control recommended hepatitis screening for staff, and injected those who tested negative with vaccine at N1,000 a shot.
Bartholomew told police investigators he injected a total 35 workers in days around his anti-hepatitis campaign programme, and offered antiretroviral drug Lamivudine for sale.
All women at the establishment tested positive in a “syphilis strip” test he conducted, and he asked them to meet him at a location in Apo for three doses of injections for which he charged N9,000.
He offered hair clippers for men at N4,800 which he said would help them prevent sexually transmitted infections.
The hotel got concerned when its staff began coming down with unexplained reactions, Excel manager Joy Nyesom told investigators.
A female staff fainted twice on Monday, others complained of diarrhoea and some men complained of severe waist pain.
Investigators from the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, which regulates Nigerian doctors, recovered from Bartholomew a first-aid box filled with syringes and drug vials, a vaccine cooling box and several records of previous clients.
Bartholomew said he injected the women with 2ml of the antibiotic streptomycin to treat the sexually transmitted infections his “syphilis strip” test showed, but during questioning by the council’s investigators to test any medical training, he had no idea how many milligrammes a 2ml shot contained.
Documents believed to be forged claim he did a six-month industrial training at 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna in 2012 but the document was simply signed “HOD Public Health” without a name.
It also emerged that he is a health school dropout. Investigators also found past records of previous patients that suggest Bartholomew has been on his scam since 2011
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