EXCLUSIVE: How doctor sedated, raped married patient in Sokoto

A medical doctor at a public hospital in Sokoto State, Tijjani Faruk, has thrown the Sokoto medical community into grief after confessing to raping a married woman after administering sedative injection on her.

Mr Faruk took both the code of medical ethics in Nigeria and the Hippocratic Oath to the cleaners when he invited his patient on the pretext of further medical examination but ended up raping her.

In an interview with DAILY NIGERIAN, the husband of the patient, simply identified as Alhaji Shehu, said he was referred to the doctor by a family friend when his wife was diagnosed of fibroids late last year.

A couple of months after the operation, he said the doctor called him on phone, requesting that he send his wife for “further medical examination” the next day.

“He called me one Friday afternoon requesting me to send my wife to him for further medical examination on Saturday 10am. Unknown to me that the doctor had evil plan to rape my wife, I did as requested,” he said.

“When she woke up at 7pm on that Saturday, she discovered that Dr Tijjani Ahmad Faruq (TJ) had sexual intercourse with her while she was unconscious.

“When she asked him why he did that that to her, he gave no reason, but only apologized and pleaded with her to forgive him.

“When she asked Dr Tijjani about the family planning pills she was supposed to use in order to prevent immediate conception after the fibroid operation, he said she won’t be able to conceive again.

“A series of womb ultrasounds carried out at Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH) and Zafafi Hospital of Bello Way Sokoto showed that Dr Tijjani has instead of only removing the fibroid complained of, negligently sewed and blocked my wife’s womb, thereby rendering her permanently sterile.

“But since that fateful day, I noticed that my wife had refused to visit his hospital whenever I directed her to do so.

“When she finally revealed the shocking news to me that her doctor raped her and everything that transpired on that day, I instructed her to go once again in order to have his confessions on tape.

“During the sting operation I arranged with my wife to get a proof, my wife confronted him again on why he raped her, the doctor was heard on tape saying ‘this will be the end of your marriage if you tell your husband’.

“Even on that very day she went to secretly have his confessions on tape, he struggled to rape her but she refused,” Mr Shehu said.

In a petition written to the Commissioner for Health, Sokoto State, the lawyer of the victim, Muhammad Mansur-Aliyu, demanded justice for his client, saying the doctor should appropriately be sanctioned.

According to Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria, the doctor risks delisting from medical register and prosecution.

“Any registered practitioner who abuses his professional position, for example by committing adultery or indulging in any improper conduct or by maintaining an improper association with a patient, is liable to have his name erased from the Register.

“In this connection, any finding of fact which has been made in proceedings in the High Court of an appeal from a decision in such proceedings shall be conclusive evidence of the fact in any trial held by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal,” a provision in the Code of Medical Ethics in Nigeria said.

DAILY NIGERIAN reliably gathered that the doctor had initially denied the allegations, but when the tape of his conversation with his patient was played to him by the investigative panel, he confessed to having sex with her.

When contacted for comment, Mr Faruk neither answered our reporter’s call nor replied to text message seeking his comment on the allegations.

But the state commissioner of Health, Ali Inname, on Thursday confirmed the incident to DAILY NIGERIAN, saying the ministry had constituted a panel to investigate the matter.

The permanent secretary of the ministry, Almustapha Othman, explained further that the doctor has been invited to the investigative panel and queried.

“In the interim, he was queried. And when we receive his reply within 48 hours, the ministry may interdict, suspend or take whatever action appropriate pending the outcome of the investigation,” he said.

Mr Othman said the outcome of the investigation will be available in the first week of April.

• Daily Nigerian