Twitter User Alerts The Public Of Fake Medical Practitioner In Town, Details The Method She Uses To Dupe Poor Elderly Women
A social media user on Twitter The Official Akorede @theakorede has shared a rather sad story of a fake medical practitioner who dupes poor illiterate women.
According to Korede, the fake medical practitioner identified as Innocent Esther extorts money as much as N10, 000 from the elderly women in the Ojo area of Lagos state and sells fake drugs to them.
In his narration, Esther comes to the area with a thermometer, lying to the women that the Thermometer is used to detect serious female medical conditions such as Cancer and other diseases. She would then ask the ignorant women to pay as much as N10000 for medications that will heal them of any ailment the thermometer detects.
The women who are oblivious of her fraudulent act, would then pay the money, sometimes in installment. The woman would then give them some substance, claiming they are drugs. The drugs she gives to them are never with labels or NAFDAC numbers.
Here is how Korede narrated his encounter with Esther on Twitter:
”I have a sad gist? about fake people who parade themselves as medical practitioners hence duping ignorant people of their cash. It happened today in my presence and I would tell you all how I handled the situation the best way I could. Here is the gist? @segalink @thepamilerin
So this afternoon I was waiting for a friend in front of this post service housing estate in Ojo ,while waiting I saw a woman pointing a thermometer to some elderly women breasts and she was collecting money from each of them. I was surprised at first but I decided to hang on.
So as to see what the whole situation was all about. when she was done with a particular woman ,I called the elderly woman to explain what was going on and she said â the woman uses the machine to check everything in their body including breast cancer and blood pressure etc.
I was outraged to be honest because this machine as she said is just a thermometer used in checking body temperature but the woman knows they were not educated and all that so she has an Advantage over them , she collects money from them and here is the breakdown.
She collect 200 daily for test and 10, 000 Naira for the drug she claims would solve their issues. The 10,000 Naira is paid installmentally, meaning they pay 1500 per day. These women sell vegetables by roadside and Iâm sure they drop all their daily profits.
Initially tbh I didnât want to intervene, just wanted to mind my business but I realized that I would be doing more good than harm if I intervened so I took a bold step and politely called the so called medical practitioner to a corner.
With a straight face which I donât know where the courage came from, I asked her to identify her self and she said she is a medical practitioner. She brought out an ID card which you would see below.. I didnât bother anymore to enquirer both the ID card so I went straight to the point.
I asked her why she was scamming and extorting people of their money and that if she doesnât leave, I would make everyone know what she is doing to them. I wanted her to leave then I would tell the women not to patronize her anymore but she flared up instead.
She told me she would call the police that Iâm trying to harass her, I told her to call probably we would see who would be arrested in the long run.. She claimed she sells drug and it works and all that, while all that were going on, my friend came by and I explained to him.
I told him I wanted the woman to return the money to the elderly women. I rallied all the women present there, explained to them what the machine is actually for and the damage the woman has been doing to them then I asked for the so called drug she sells to them for 10k Naira.
The women were all sad and filled with regrets âšď¸??..many have paid the whole 10,000 Naira to her for the drug but I told them to chill. As I was about to meet the woman, she took the next available bus and ran away.
I tried as much as I could to calm the women down because They donât take enough money home because she claims if they donât use it, their legs might get swollen and high blood pressure hence this women struggled daily to meet up the 1500 ..see how they were lamenting below after she ran away..blurred for safety purpose so just listen.
As you can see, all she sells for them is tea, I think itâs Lipton because most people donât know what really inside the tea bag or itâs MoringaâŚI really donât know.
Another reason I knew she was a scam was that,she never gave them her number but she collected their number and So she wonât be tracked because she doesnât call even call them, she just comes daily to collect money from them, another reason again is that the drugs arenât labeled or with any NAFDAC number, just plain white plastic as you can see below…
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Well she escaped but I advised the women to go to the nearby LASU clinic when they have any issues and Iâm sure she wonât come there again, I hope this message goes round. Please letâs educate our Elderly ones that we know arenât literate, they are easy to manipulate by these Individuals because they donât really have an understanding of all this.
If we can do this, such people wonât see a market to thrive and hence reduce the rate of this fake medical practitioner who spoil the image of the profession and also endanger lives of many people.
Kindly Educate anyone you see not to patronize such people or better still go advise the elderly ones to go to registered hospitals at regular intervals, most of them canât see this tweet but itâs left for you to retweet because you never know who you are indirectly helping..
Thank youâŚ.”
I have a sad gist? about fake people who parade themselves as medical practitioners hence duping ignorant people of their cash. It happened today in my presence and I would tell you all how I handled the situation the best way I could
Here is the gist? @segalink @thepamilerin— ? (@theakorede) July 10, 2019