The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has convicted and sentenced, a plastic surgeon and founder of MedContour Services Ltd., Dr Anuoluwapo Adepoju to one year imprisonment, for failing to appear before the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) in relation to an investigation into a failed plastic surgery that resulted in the death of one Nneka Onwuzuligbo in 2020.
Justice Mohammed Liman who found her guilty however gave her the option of paying a sum of N100,000, in lieu of the jail term.
In July 2020, the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) had arraigned Adepoju alongside her Clinic, MedContour Services Limited, on a five-count charge bordering on a refusal to honour an invitation for an investigation following complications into a post-body surgery she conducted.
She had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail on self-recognizance.
The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) took interim disciplinary action by suspending her pending the determination of her case with its disciplinary tribunal.
After the prosecution led by Babatunde Irukera, the then Director-General of the FCCPC concluded its case against her in court, the plastic surgeon elected to file a “no case submission”, claiming that no case had been made against her requiring her to open a defence.
On April 7, 2022, Justice Liman dismissed the no-case submission, and ruled that the evidence so far presented before the court by the prosecution, satisfies the elements of the criminal charges pending against her which required her to put in defence.
The plastic surgeon subsequently opened her defence and testified as the only witness.
In his judgment today, Justice Liman convicted her on all 5 counts brought against her by the FCCPC.
In the 5 count charge, the prosecution alleged that, the first defendant failed to appear before the FCCPC in relation to an investigation into a reported failed plastic surgery.
She was also alleged to have failed to show up, in compliance with the commission’s summons dated April 15, 2020.
The prosecution also alleged that without sufficient cause, the convict refused and failed to produce documents she was required to produce in compliance with the commission’s notice of investigation dated April 14, 2020.
The convict was alleged to have prevented and obstructed the commission from carrying out its investigation into the said issue.
The offences were said to have contravened sections 11(1)(a), 33(1)(a), 110, 113(1)(a) and 159(4) of the FCCPC Act, 2018.
