Although the majority of the cases handled by the UK tribunal did not involve Nigerians, the tribunal heard at least one case involving a Nigerian each month during this period, except in January.
At least 16 Nigerians working as medical professionals in the United Kingdom have either been suspended or struck off the medical register within the last 12 months, PREMIUM TIMES can report. They were sanctioned for crimes ranging from rape to theft, fraud, illegal possession of drugs and unauthorised practice.
The MPTS is an adjudication body that conducts hearings and makes decisions on the fitness to practise of doctors referred by the regulatory General Medical Council (GMC).
A review of tribunal records released on the MPTS website showed that between July 2025 and July 2026, over a dozen Nigerians were referred by the GMC to the tribunal for different offences. The outcome of the proceedings was mostly suspension. Out of the 18 Nigerians, 10 were suspended. One was let off with a warning. However, at least three others had their names struck off the kingdom’s medical register.
A Nigerian named Olubunmi Adeagbo-Sheikh is one of those removed from the register. He was removed in September 2025 over a criminal conviction for benefit fraud.
According to the MPTS records, Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh fraudulently received £11,000 in Universal Credit from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) between September 2018 and September 2019, using a fake tenancy agreement.
He had received his primary medical training at Igbinedion University, Edo State, and once worked as a gastroenterologist at Orpington Hospital in London.
Documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES showed that in August 2018, Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh submitted an application for Universal Credit, a social security benefit for unemployed or low-income earners, which included a claim for £900 per month in rent. He had not yet registered as a doctor with the GMC at this time.
Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh then provided a fake address for the house and forged a tenancy agreement to support his claim. The doctor received the requested housing cost for 13 months after his application was approved.
The police found WhatsApp chats on the benefit scam, copies of the forged tenancy agreement, and a fake CV on his device following his arrest in October 2019. He was subsequently charged to court, where he pleaded guilty and was “sentenced to a 12-month Community Order with 100 hours (4 days) of unpaid work.”
Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh did not notify the GMC of his conviction until after seven weeks, an action the tribunal qualified as misconduct.
At the hearing held in September 2025, MPTS concluded that Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh’s action was “fraud from start to finish” and a violation of the Good Medical Practice (GMP) standards.
It “rejected the out-of-hand assertion by Adeagbo-Sheikh that it was his intention to stop claiming benefits when he started work.”
The tribunal “was of the view, having seen and heard oral evidence from Dr Adeagbo-Sheikh, that he would likely not have stopped voluntarily and not until he was found out. Adeagbo-Sheikh’s character at the time was that he was willing to be dishonest,” the document read.
The MPTS also felt it was too early to say there was no risk of him repeating such dishonest actions. Although Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh had taken steps toward remediation—such as repaying the money and completing community service—the tribunal ruled that he lacked “full insight” into his behaviour because much of his reflection was recent and he had used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate the reports and testimonials he submitted to the council.
The tribunal did not accept Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh’s evidence that his own work amounted to 85 per cent. This was a figure plucked out of the air, it said. In the tribunal’s view, about “five and a half pages of this document are likely to have been written by Mr Adeagbo-Sheikh, but not the remaining 16 and a half pages, which would appear to have been written with AI support.”
The tribunal ruled that his “premeditated and persistent dishonesty” meant he could no longer remain registered as a doctor. The MPTS ruled that his name be removed from the UK Medical Register.
Between September and October 2025, the tribunal erased the names of two Nigerians from its medical register for rape and unauthorised practice, including “performing an HRT surgery.”
Both of them had been practising in the kingdom for over a decade. Aloaye Foy-Yamah, a graduate of the University of Benin, practised as a gynaecologist in England for more than 14 years before he was sanctioned by the tribunal for rape.
Records on Mr Foy-Yamah’s hearing show that the tribunal found that he had raped a woman. The tribunal considered him a risk to women if allowed to continue his career. It was directed that his name be struck off the medical register based on this concern. This hearing was held in May 2026.
The incident, according to documents reviewed by this paper, occurred in mid-November 2018, at Mr Foyamah’s residence. The victim, identified as “Ms A”, was visiting him at his home for a week-long stay.
The tribunal heard that although Ms A rejected his advances when he first made them, he would eventually force himself on her. It ruled that Mr Foy-Yamah had sexually propositioned and assaulted Ms A during that visit.
The case was previously investigated by Lancashire Police, but no criminal charges were brought. In March 2025, however, an independent panel investigated the case and ruled that on the “balance of probabilities”, the doctor was most definitely guilty of rape. However, Mr Foy-Yamah had his licence suspended for only 12 months in March 2025 on the grounds that it had been a “one-off” incident.
Then the GMC appealed against that decision to the new tribunal, which ruled in May 2026 that Mr Foy-Yamah posed a risk to women and had to be struck off the medical register.
A Nigerian gynaecologist who, according to MPTS records, obtained his primary medical training from the University of Ibadan in Oyo State, was also struck off the register by the tribunal in 2025.
Joseph Onwude was erased following findings of persistent dishonesty, unauthorised practice, and a criminal conviction for pretending to be licensed.
Documents reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES showed that the GMC withdrew his licence in 2021 after failing to submit mandatory returns. But Mr Onwude continued to operate a private practice despite having no license.
In March and April 2022, Mr Onwude gave private prescriptions to two patients and surgically inserted an HRT implant into a third patient at a clinic in Badwell Ash in Suffolk, England.
He also emailed one of the patients, referring to HRT medication as “smarties,” a language that displeased the patient. The GMC also considered the language inappropriate because it trivialised the serious risks and benefits of HRT.
The GMC Interim Orders Tribunal (IOT) imposed an “order of suspension” on Mr Onwude’s registration in August that same year. But Mr Onwude continued practising, according to records reviewed in this paper. Three months after the IOT order, Mr Onwude issued a private prescription for Vagifem to a patient.
