Officials of the Police and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) have arrested Indian neurosurgeon, Dr. Raju Bhuvaneswara Basina for operating without a practice licence.

The Police from Apo Resettlement Division arrested the 53-year-old on Monday in Abuja at Asokoro District Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory, as part of MDCN’s renewed clampdown against quackery.

It is believed that Basina has been conducting neurosurgical operations at Asokoro District Hospital for more than a year without licence from MDCN, the regulatory agency for doctors and dentists in the country.

He was performing a craniotomy (brain surgery) in an operating theatre when policemen and MDCN’s inspectorate officials led by Dr. Henry Okwuokenye arrived at the Hospital for his arrest. The team was also accompanied by President of the Guild of Medical Directors, Dr. Tony Phillips.

Even though Chief Medical Director of Asokoro Hospital, Dr. Ahmadu Abubakar prevailed on officials of MDCN to wait for the completion of the surgery before arresting him, the arrest was effected in the end, especially as Okwuokenye revealed that Basina worked as a doctor at Asokoro Hospital for nearly a year before eventually applying for a licence in August 2013.

“MDCN is yet to process Basina’s application while response from our counterpart in India’s medical regulating agency is pending. But Basina has continued to work on contract, insisting that he had applied”, Okwuokenye said.

“We wrote a letter to India to tell us about the status and license of Basina but they are yet to get back to us. Although he claimed to have applied, mere application is not a license to practice. When we asked him of a Doctor could practice in India without license, he said No. Why then is he practicing in Nigeria? Time has come for us to sanitize the system; Nigeria is not a Banana Republic where anything can happen”.

In his interaction with the regulatory officials, Basina claimed to have received training in the United States but lamented that securing practice licence in Nigeria is far too cumbersome and long-drawn-out. He said practicing licences are easily issued over the phone in India while the entire protest lasts only a few days in the US.

But Owuokenye would have none of it. “Can I do this in India? I go to India, I apply, and while waiting for them, I start practising”, he wondered. “An application is not equivalent to licence. There are other Indian and foreign doctors practicing in Nigeria with due licensing.

Restating the commitment of MDCN to ending uncertified practice by people claiming to be doctors, as authorised by its Registrar, Dr. Abdulmumini Ibrahim, he revealed that at least three separate cases involving improper licensing are currently ongoing in court.