From John Silas, Lagos
The legal tussle between the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP) Lagos State Chapter and the Lagos State Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) on Friday, has taken a new dimension with the trial Judge slamming the defendant for sealing four hospitals against a pending motion in the court.
Honourable Justice D.T. Olatokun of Ikeja Judicial Division of the High Court of Lagos on Friday, April 8, 2022, chastised the Lagos State health regulatory body for not playing according to the rules and directed the Defense Counsel to advise HEFAMAA properly.
The case was however adjourned till April 25, 2022, at the instance of the Counsel to the plaintiff, Abimbola Akeredolu (SAN), who argued that the integrity of the court should be restored before further hearing on the case.
Akeredolu said “This morning they served us with a further counter affidavit, they really have no right to file that further counter affidavit and again they are saying some things that are not true, clearly contrary because during the week, I think on Wednesday, despite the fact that they knew that this motion for injunction is pending. Motion for injunction under the law, once it is filed and served on you, you are supposed to wait, to hear what the court would say, whether they are going to injunct you or whether they are not going to injunct you, but HEFAMAA didn’t wait, they just went and started inspecting hospitals.”
Akeredolu stated that in as much nobody would stop HEFAMAA from doing their statutory health inspection, they must do such work in consonance with the legal provisions. She insisted that HEFAMAA has no right to shut hospitals when there is still motion pending in court over the matters of inspection “Okay, when HEFAMAA went to a number of hospitals, those ones say we are aware of the motion pending in court, and we have been told to maintain the status quo till the motion in court is determined. It was on that basis that HEFAMAA locked up those four hospitals.”
Akeredolu argued that there are two ways for which a hospital can be closed which include if the hospital is being run by somebody that is not a qualified doctor, and if the hospital is not registered under HEFAMAA. She said none of the above considerations formed the basis for shutting down the four hospitals. “Under the law, the only situation in which you can lock up a hospital, section 71, I think, of the Health Sector reform law is if the hospital is been run by somebody that is not a qualified doctor, two if the hospital is not registered under HEFAMAA. So they are not saying those hospitals were being run by someone who is not a doctor, they are not saying that the hospital is not registered with HEFAMAA, they said because owners of those hospitals didn’t follow them to inspect, and they sealed four hospitals till now as we speak.”
On the reason she requested for adjournment, Akeredolu said that she could not argue the injunction when the position of the court is disrespected by HEFAMAA “So I couldn’t argue their injunction when the position of the court is disrespected by HEFAMAA. So I need to bring those evidence and things they did to the court. That is why I asked for an adjournment. The matter for which we came today could not be heard because they have disrespected the court, the court first needs to instill its respect back before we hear any other thing.”
On the position of the judge over the latest action by HEFAMAA, Akeredolu “The Judge said to their lawyer to go and advise the first defendant, that when a matter is in court, yes, maybe you can go about your work, but you must go about it under the law.”
On why there was no directive by the judge to go and unseal the hospital, she said, “There can’t be a directive because there was no application, there is no evidence before the court; we are going to bring all of that as evidence.”
Chairman, ANPMP, Dr Makinde Akinlemibola, responding to the action of HEFAMAA in locking some hospitals when there is a matter still pending in court, he said it is the highest level of impunity “I feel that is the level of impunity we are having with the government. This is not the first time that is happening, and I believe that these are the things that brought us to the court. The court is going to tell us exactly how they should behave and so on and so forth. We have been going on this way for too long and this goes to emphasize the fact that they have done some things with impunity. If the court says hold on until this is determined by the court and you are not patient enough to hold on, and you went ahead sealing some hospitals, even in spite of the fact that they know that the hospitals are run by qualified personnel, and the hospitals are registered, that goes to show the kind of impunity exhibited by government.”
On what he expected from the judge based on the hospitals that were locked by HEFAMAAA, he said “Well I will expect that the judge will direct that the facilities be reopened immediately. I will expect, it is not my own decision, it is the judge’s decision to do that, mine is to allow my Counsels to put forward the case and the court will now determine.”
Recalled that the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP) Lagos Chapter had taken the Lagos State Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) to court over monitoring procedures leading to physical attack on a 73 years old medical doctor by the Executive Secretary of HEFAMAA, Dr. Mrs Abiola Idowu.
MAccording to ANPMP, Dr Abiola Idowu by slapping a medical doctor has violated Civil Service rules of Lagos State and should be removed.
