Nigerian Doctor Drags Medical Unions To Court Over Imposition of 'Outrageous Fees, Charges' On Members

A Nigerian physician and consultant, Dr. Adeyelu Olusola has dragged the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) before a Federal High Court in Abuja over the alleged imposition of unjustifiable charges on medical practitioners.

He is also seeking an order of the court to declare the NMA membership as voluntary and that he has the right to resign his membership from the association and still practise as a medical doctor.

In a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1094/2020 filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Tope Temokun before Justice Donatus Okorowo, the doctor sued NMA and MDCN as 1st and 2nd defendants respectively.

But the matter which was scheduled for hearing on Wednesday could not hold when the presiding judge, Justice Okorowo announced the adjournment of pending cases after he returned from a short break.

Olusola had on April 24, 2019, resigned his membership from the NMA following the "outrageous charges and fees" the association imposed on him and other members, which are collected by MDCN, the regulatory body.

In an affidavit in support of the suit, Adeyelu said he did not at any point in the course of his practice as a doctor indicate interest in becoming a member of NMA.

The suit read, “Upon my induction into the medical profession in 2005 and the taking of the Hippocratic Oath, I met it as the practice that although the 2nd defendant is a voluntary association, it has been operating in a manner that portrays it as a mandatory association for medical practitioners in Nigeria.

“It is commonplace that every medical practitioner should be conscripted through the payment of an annual practising fee to the 1st defendant, which money is legislated to be subject to sharing formula of 30 to 70 per cent between the 1st defendant and the 2nd defendant."

He, therefore, sought the court’s determination on the following questions: “What is the true meaning, the true purport and the true intendment of the provision of Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended)?

“Whether based on the facts and circumstances of this case, the provisions of Section 14(4) of the Medical and Dental Practitioners Act Cap M8, Laws of Federation of Nigeria, 2004, by practical application and/or implication, do not rob the plaintiff of his right to freedom of association."

Adeyelu, therefore, sought “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the 2nd defendant henceforth from further imposing on the plaintiff its membership and/or its membership obligations and/or its subscription and/or its building levies or other levies, either directly or through the 1st defendant.

“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the 1st defendant from further subjecting the plaintiff to the 2nd defendant’s membership and/or mandatory payment of the 2nd defendant’s association subscription and/or the 2nd defendant’s building levies or other levies before recognising or according to the plaintiff his rights and privileges as a medical practitioner in Nigeria."

Other reliefs sought include: an Order of perpetual injunction restraining the 1st defendant from further remitting to the 2nd defendant 70% of the plaintiff’s mandatory annual practising fees having ceased to be a member of the 2nd defendant.

“An order of mandatory injunction directing and/or mandating the 1st defendant to henceforth, within one month of the payment of the plaintiff’s annual practising fees, remit 70 per cent of the plaintiff’s mandatory annual practising fees to the plaintiff having ceased to be a member of the 2nd defendant.”

Justice Okorowo adjourned the matter to November 10, 2021, for hearing.

 

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