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LUTH condemns killing of honorary consultant

By Chukwuma Muanya
31 May 2016   |   3:12 am
The management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba, Lagos, has condemned the killing of its Honorary Consultant and a staff of the University of Lagos, Dr. Thomas Oduntan Adekoya-Cole...
 Prof. Chris Bode

Prof. Chris Bode

The management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Idi-Araba, Lagos, has condemned the killing of its Honorary Consultant and a staff of the University of Lagos, Dr. Thomas Oduntan Adekoya-Cole, in the Itele area of Ijebu, Ogun State.

Chief Medical Director (CMD) of LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode, in a telephone chat with The Guardian, yesterday, declined to comment on the cause of death and on the circumstances surrounding the death of the orthopaedic surgeon.

Bode said: “He worked with us as honorary consultant although a staff of the University of Lagos. I will not speak on the cause of death because the Police in Ogun State are investigating the matter and we await their findings. I condemn the action and I commiserate with the family and immediate community of his death.”

The Guardian reliably gathered that late Adekoya-Cole did not have a good relationship with the management of LUTH and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).

He had in 2012 sued LUTH for unlawfully suspending by him. A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos had fixed May 14, 2013 to hear his suit challenging his suspension from work by LUTH.

The plaintiff, Thomas Adekoya-Cole, had filed the suit in 2012 through his counsel, Kunbi Braithwaite, challenging his suspension by LUTH and had sought an order to declare the act illegal.

Adekoya-Cole had averred in his statement of claim that LUTH had by a letter dated June 8, 2010, suspended him as a medical practitioner in the hospital over what it termed an act of negligence.

He averred that the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Nigeria, which is the governing body for medical practitioners and the first defendant in the suit, had ordered his suspension.

He said the suspension was based on the allegation that he had negligently performed a surgical operation on the left femur (thigh bone) of one Miss Abubakar in May 1998.

According to the plaintiff, the council had alleged that barley two weeks after he performed the operation on the patient, she was reported to have dislocated the replaced head of the femur.

He further averred that based on this allegation, he was served with a letter of suspension from office and his salary stopped.The plaintiff also claimed that his employers also published his suspension in the Guardian Newspaper of July 5, 2010.

Adekoya-Cole noted that when the verdict was passed on him, the first defendant had been dissolved by a circular dated October 22, 2007, issued by the Secretary to Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He was, therefore, seeking a declaration that the act of the council in finding him guilty and ordering his suspension was unlawful, since it was not an existing body at that time.

The medical doctor also sought an order of court directing LUTH to release all his salaries, with interest at 21 per cent accruing from June 2010 till date, and N5 million as general damages.

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