Fake Medical Report Scandal: El-Rufai’s Personal Physician Faces MDCAN Panel, Criminal Charges

Professor Bello Abubakar and former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai

Fake Medical Report Scandal: El-Rufai’s Personal Physician Faces MDCAN Panel, Criminal Charges

National Hospital disowns document as ICPC files four-count charge against oncology consultant Prof. Bello Abubakar

ABUJA, Nigeria – The personal physician to former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai is facing both professional disciplinary action and criminal prosecution over allegations that he issued a false medical report to support his patient’s bail application.

Professor Bello Abubakar, an oncology consultant at the National Hospital, Abuja, has been questioned by the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) over his alleged role in procuring the disputed document. Simultaneously, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has filed a four-count charge against him before the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The anti-graft agency had earlier arrested Abubakar over alleged false statements made during a court-approved medical visit for the former governor. The ICPC argued that El-Rufai was abusing the arrangement by receiving political associates instead of undergoing medical consultation, which it described as an outright violation of the court’s order.

According to ICPC sources, the commission took its time to verify the authenticity of the medical report before proceeding with the arrest. The agency consulted three medical doctors in Nigeria and one in the United States, all of whom confirmed the document was fake. Rather than immediately proceed with criminal charges, the ICPC first handed Abubakar over to the MDCAN for disciplinary action to avoid accusations of intimidating or disrespecting the medical profession.

The disputed document, titled “Medical Report and Expert Opinion for Urgent Medical Intervention,” was dated June 10, 2026, and was presented to support El-Rufai’s bail application in a separate case marked KDH/KAD/ICPC/02/2026, pending before the Kaduna State High Court. The ICPC alleges that Abubakar knowingly authored the report with false contents and presented it to a Commissioner for Oaths in Kaduna State, Aliyu Bala, before it was filed in court.

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The criminal charges filed by the ICPC on Friday accuse Abubakar of multiple offences under the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, and the Penal Code. The first count accuses Abubakar of giving false information with intent to mislead a public officer, contrary to Section 17(1)(c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000. Prosecutors argue that the report was prepared with the intention of influencing official actions relating to the former governor’s case. The second count alleges that he used his position as a medical consultant to confer an unfair advantage on himself by knowingly issuing the false report, an offence under Section 19 of the same Act. The third count accuses Abubakar of forming a common intention with Aliyu Bala to fabricate false information, specifically authoring the report to enable Bala to depose a further affidavit in support of El-Rufai’s bail application, contrary to Section 79 of the Penal Code. The fourth count accuses him of dishonestly making a false document by presenting the report as though it carried the authority of the National Hospital, Abuja, when he allegedly knew the document was not authorised by the hospital, an offence under Sections 362 and 364 of the Penal Code.

Court documents indicate that the National Hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Raji Mahmud, is expected to testify that Abubakar issued the medical report in El-Rufai’s favour without conducting the required medical examination and handed it to the family to support the bail application. The Chief Medical Director is also expected to tell the court that the National Hospital, responding to letters from ICPC investigators, stated that it did not authorise the report attributed to the defendant. He is expected to testify further that investigations established that the report was false and did not follow the hospital’s due process. In a letter responding to ICPC’s enquiries, the Chief Medical Director confirmed that Abubakar remains attached to the hospital as a Chief Consultant Radiation Oncologist on a contract appointment following his retirement from full-time service. The letter stated that the medical report bore no hospital number, but staff nonetheless searched the hospital’s Electronic Medical Records using variations of El-Rufai’s name and cross-checked patients who visited the Oncology clinic in the first two weeks of June 2026. The search found no matching record, leading the hospital to conclude that El-Rufai was not a registered patient at the time. The Chief Medical Director said the absence of a hospital number or personal phone number made it impossible to verify any hospital visits, receipts, or departmental records linked to the former governor. He further stated that hospital management was unaware of the report until it was presented by the ICPC, and that although it was written on National Hospital letterhead, it did not have the knowledge or backing of hospital management.

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In his statement to investigators, Abubakar maintained that El-Rufai had been registered as a National Hospital patient since 2005 and stated that he had worked at the hospital since 1999. He said he had consulted with the former governor on several occasions over the years, though he acknowledged that some consultations were not formally documented because he did not consider the discussions to require formal documentation. Abubakar said he documented no more than four consultations with El-Rufai between 2017 and 2025. He added that he attended to the former governor three times between 2025 and 2026 while El-Rufai was in ICPC custody — twice at the commission’s facility and once at the National Hospital. The Chief Medical Director’s account, however, gave a different timeline. He said that, to the best of his knowledge, El-Rufai was only registered as a patient on July 7, 2026, and that he was previously unaware that the former governor had been treated at the hospital.

The ICPC has listed two principal witnesses: its investigator, Olugbemi Osanoto, and the National Hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Raji Mahmud, alongside a representative of the Kaduna State High Court and any additional witnesses to be produced by subpoena. Exhibits listed in the charge by the ICPC include extra-judicial statements recorded from Abubakar, dated July 9 and July 14, 2026; a statement from the Chief Medical Director dated July 10, 2026; hospital correspondence dated June 18 and July 10, 2026; and a wallet deposit record dated July 7, 2026, alongside any further evidence to be filed in line with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.

The allegations against Abubakar come amid ongoing legal battles involving El-Rufai. The former governor has been in ICPC custody since February 19, following his release by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and is facing multiple corruption-related prosecutions. The Kaduna State High Court had previously rejected El-Rufai’s bail application based on medical grounds, with the judge holding that a medical report disowned by its purported issuer could not serve as a basis for granting bail. The developments have drawn public attention to the intersection of medical ethics, legal proceedings, and anti-corruption efforts. The ICPC’s decision to first refer the matter to MDCAN before filing criminal charges reflects an approach that balances professional accountability with the need to avoid perceptions of intimidation against the medical profession. El-Rufai has denied the allegations against him, pleaded not guilty in the various cases, and has repeatedly accused the federal and Kaduna governments of using the prosecutions to keep him in detention. The allegations against Abubakar remain unproven, and he is expected to respond to the charges before the court. The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has also weighed in on the matter, questioning the authenticity of the medical report while urging the courts to ensure justice is served without bias. MURIC stated that if the allegations of forgery were proven true, the development would be “most unfortunate, highly disturbing and worrisome,” but noted that the responsibility ultimately lies with El-Rufai’s lawyers, as the former governor could not have obtained the documents by himself.