One of the cardinal objectives and policy thrust of President Buhari Administration is the fight against corruption; however, this is not the case of the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos State, Dr. Oluwayemi Cecilia Ogun who was alleged to have refused to vacate her office as the CMD despite attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60years since September 23, 2019.
This contravenes and is in deviance to the Public Service Rules (PSR) 0202810 of Chapter two (2) in relations to retirement, which states as follows:
“The Compulsory retirement age for all grades in the service shall be 60 years or 35 years of pensionable service whichever is earlier, and no officer shall be allowed to remain in service after attaining the retirement age of 60 years”.
Investigations by News Hub Mag! revealed that the process for the appointment of a Medical Director of the Neuropsychiatric hospital Yaba in 2017, was skewed to favour the appointment of Dr. Ogun, owing to her affinity with the immediate past Minister of Health, Dr Isaac Adewole, who disregarded the rules as advertised which prescribed the eligibility criteria of not being above the age of fifty-five years (55) as at the time of applying for the position of Medical Director as opposed to the regular standard obtainable for the appointment of medical directors across board for other federal medical institutions in Nigeria.
Sources disclosed that her appointment specifically violated the 6th requirement for the position as advertised at the time that “candidate must not be more than fifty five (55) years of age, as Dr. Ogun was already 58 years old when she was appointed.
Notwithstanding the curious circumstance of her now elapsed appointment, News Hub Mag gathered that the CMD who clocked 60 on 23rd September, has refused to proceed on terminal leave, as required by law and has now resorted to lobbying high level officers of the Ministry of Health, to extend her tenure, by referring to an already suspended circular by Mr. President on tenureship which is an affront to the anti-corruption agenda of the Federal Government.
News Hub Mag! gathered that this has also generated bad blood amongst her colleagues who are of the view that the intent to elongate her elapsed tenure is vile considering the manner she vigorously fought her predecessor who allegedly attempted to extend tenure illegally.
A petition sighted by News Hub Mag! dated 15th of February 2019 by the Joint Health Sector Union accused the embattled CMD of gross abuse of office and corruption.
The petition accused Dr. Ogun of outsourcing the account department without going through the necessary procedures, which is strongly against the Financial regulation of the establishment.
News Hub Mag! gathered that she was also once invited by police force headquarters CID Alagbon, Lagos to answer for allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
It was also noted that in 2018, she singlehandedly bought a vehicle worth N40million with funds meant for another purpose despite having two functional official vehicles.
Sources also hinted that she bought a personal 2019 model Camry car worth 26million naira which was packed in front of her quarters.
Similarly, she was accused of having sacked all hospital contractors and suppliers, awarded contracts to her relatives at exorbitant prices far above the amount previous contractors charged. The petition also alleged that most of the companies used for the hospital contract were owned by her husband and cronies.
All efforts to contact the embattled CMD proved abortive as at the time of filling in this report.
