The head of medical record of Kubwa General Hospital in Abuja, Bassey Amah, on Wednesday said that the ex-minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, does not have any medical record with the facility.
Mr Amah gave evidence before Olubunmi Abike-Fadipe, a judge at the Ikeja Special Offence Court, in the ongoing alleged medical report forgery of the former minister.
While being led in evidence by the counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Rotimi Oyedepo, the first prosecution witness said, “Mr Femi Fani-Kayode does not have a record with Kubwa General Hospital”.
Mr Amah confirmed he is the chief custodian of medical records who takes vital information from patients at the hospital.
According to him on October 3rd, 2021, Kubwa General Hospital received a letter from the EFCC to investigate the authenticity of a medical report on Mr Fani-Kayode.
The witness said upon receiving a letter dated October 3, 2021, from the EFCC to investigate the defendant, a response was sent on October 13, 2021, to the commission by the hospital.
He insisted that the medical report purportedly emanating from his hospital is not “authentic.”
As Mr Oyedepo sought to tender the letter of request by EFCC dated October 3, 2021, and the response from the hospital, Norrison Quakers, a lawyer representing Mr Fani-Kayode, objected to the admissibility of the documents as evidence.
The lawyer objected on the premise that the witness in the box was not the author of the document.
Mr Oyedepo, however, countered him saying “the document tendered is a public document. It emanated from Kubwa General Hospital and the witness in the box has given evidence on oath.
“He has told how they received the document, how it was investigated and how the letter was prepared.”
The EFCC’s lawyer argued that by virtue of the role the witness played in making of the document, “the document is original and the witness is the maker of the document. Even the certified copy of the document was made a public document,” he said.
“I refer your Lordship to Section 102 (3) of the Evidence Act which says officer or offical on duty is authorised to submit documents.”
On the contrary, Mr Quaker noted that there was nothing on the face of the document linking the witness to the document.
The judge admitted the documents into evidence noting that there was no need to bring the authors of the documents to court for the documents to be admissible as evidence.
“The witness led the evidence to state that he is the head of the medical record and the letter was issued by the medical director.
“In this case, I have certified that the witness in the box is competent to give evidence in court. I, therefore, admit the documents into evidence,” Mrs Abike-Fadipe said.
Mr Oyedepo, leading the witness, asked, “Do you know Abdulrazak Jimoh?
“He is a staff(er) of Kubwa General Hospital,” Mr Amah responded.
“Has your facility issued any other medical report in relation to this defendant?”
He answered, “no.”
Again, counsel to the defendant objected on the line of EFCC’s questioning.
The EFCC lawyer, probing the head of medical record department further on what the position of the hospital is on the exhibits earlier admitted and marked by the judge, the witness insisted “As I said earlier, Mr. Fani-Kayode is not our patient and has no medical report in our hospital.
“The name is not even found there…the number is not our hospital unit number.”
He added that he does not know a certain Tochukwu Eze in the hospital where he works as a Chief of Medical Record.
Further hearing in the matter continues on February 25.
The EFCC arraigned the former minister on a 12-count charge of forging a medical report to evade trial.
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