Dr. Dan Abubakar, the Coordinator of the Cross River State Taskforce on Health Quality and Anti-Quackery, has verified the closure of Ben Damare Clinic and Maternity in the Ekori community of Yakurr LGA.
Speaking with journalists, Abubakar said it became necessary to close the clinic after confirming with the State Ministry of Health that the clinic was not on the list of registered facilities in Cross River.
Abubakar declared the facility unfit to deliver health services.
He disclosed that the clinic owner and his manager have both been arrested and detained by police in Ekori for further investigation after providing written statements.
They will soon be arraigned in court for possible prosecution.
He explained that the taskforce, alongside a team of policemen from the Ekori Police Station, carried out the operation after the community raised the alarm about increasing maternal and infant mortality rates.
According to Dr. Abubakar, checks at the clinic revealed several inadequacies.
He assured that his taskforce is resolved to rid the state health sector of quacks and their activities, maintaining that medical practice in the state must comply strictly with laid-down rules and regulations.
Investigation showed that a mother and her twin babies and another mother and child died at the facility after cesarean sections in quick succession.
Reacting, the proprietor of the clinic, Dr Olisa Obi, claimed that he studied at the University of Port Harcourt and worked with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Ebonyi State.
Dr. Obi said he will provide available documents to prove his facility was duly registered to deliver health services.
Regarding the spate of maternal and infant deaths in the facility, the embattled clinic owner cited complications as the major cause of those occurrences, adding that in such situations, regrettable as they seem, death could occur.
Daily Post reports that a few months ago, the taskforce clamped down on a quack Trado-Medical trade fair in Ogoja.
Two weeks ago, the Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr Henry Egbe Ayuk, disputed claims by a private tertiary institution in the state, Arthur Jarvis University, that it was the first institution to establish a trado-medical research center, warning them to cease further work.
