We Are Not Part Of Any Illegal Kidney Harvesting Syndicate - Alliance Hospital

● Denies Knowledge Of Emmanuel Melody

Alliance Hospital, the health facility accused by Daily Trust newspapers of organ racketeering in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has again vehemently denied any involvement in the alleged kidney harvesting cartel, while equally denying knowledge of one Emmanuel Melody, the principal character mentioned in the report. The Hospital also stated that there has been sustained media attacks on the hospital for a while because the organisation failed to accede to a demand of N150m, One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira as compensation for the one of the Kidney Donors by some lawyers.

Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr Christopher Otabor made the clarification in a press conference organized by the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, FCT Chapter on Monday in their effort to wade into the trending allegations. 

Daily Trust had reported that Melody, purportedly a staff of Alliance Hospital, allegedly lured one Oluwatobi Adebayo, a 17 year old boy, to Alliance Hospital where his kidney was harvested and thereafter paid One Million Naira (N1m). 

Sequel to the report, Lawal Idris of Lawal Idris Law Firm, petitioned the FCT Police Commissioner, over what the allegation, requesting among others, that the hospital pays Adebayo N100m as compensation for harvesting his kidney while also paying N50m to his father, Adedoyin Salman, for alleged psychological and emotional trauma. 

"The Police Commissioner ordered the arrest of some members of our kidney transplant team and instituted a high level team to investigate the claims. The police found no merit in the petition as the key suspect, Emmanuel Melody was proven not to be a staff of Alliance Hospital," Dr Otabor explained. 

Dr Otabor added that Alliance Hospital operates a cardinal standard practice before conducting any and every kidney transplant, contrary to allegations by the lawyer that the hospital did not conduct any compatibility test on the Donor. He added also that facts before the hospital shows that the Donor was over 18years old as at the time of the surgery contrary to the claims in the report.

"Kidney transplant is a big deal. We don't just drag patients and take them to the theatre. Most of the time, it takes more than one month....doing different tests of compatibility, scan to be sure the kidneys are OK, then after all the medical tests are OK, we now proceed to the legal test. That's when we ask the donor to go the court to swear to an affidavit to back up all the claims made."

Dr Otabor added that following the lawyer's failure to extract money from the hospital, he coopted the Daily Trust reporter, Lami Sadiq, whom he explained, visited the hospital and was given detailed account of the case in question. The reporter, he noted, opted however, to discard the hospital's account, going ahead to publish a second story on December 10th, which he described as "vindictive, biased and an obvious vendetta against the hospital." 

"The second publication of 10th December is in line with the first and it is a peddler of half truth. While we appreciate the need for investigative journalism to get to the root of societal problems, we must state here categorically that the Daily Trust report is a calculated attempt to malign the hospital, having disregarded the facts presented to them," Dr Otabor emphasized. 

He surmised that Alliance Hospital has instructed its lawyers to put the newspaper on legal notice by demanding that it retracted both stories which are obviously defamatory or face legal action.

The NMA Chairman, FCT Chapter, Dr. Charles Ugwuanyi cautioned a section of the media and particularly, Daily Trust against baseless allegations and reports against Alliance Hospital , insisting that Alliance Hospital is one of the frontline hospitals offering services to tame medical tourism in Nigeria.

"Kidney problems and other solid organs in the body requiring transplants are on the increase. At this point in time, we must also be careful that we do not discourage those that have ventured into providing these services by being very careful. We also encourage Nigerians that if a matter like this is already in the Tribunal (MDCN) or the court, no matter how powerful your media organisations is, it is simply subjudiced." Dr Charles stated.