‘Yaba Left’ groans under mismanagement, stealing of resources, workers demand MD Owoeye’s removal

Some petitioners at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos State, have called on anti-graft agencies to probe alleged financial misconduct by the medical director of the health institution, Olugbenga Owoeye.

The group of stakeholders in the petition signed by one of them, Victor Ajasegun, alleged that since Owoeye became the medical director four years ago, the hospital had become a shadow of its old self.

They accused the medical director of financial misappropriation and virement, high-handedness and victimisation, adding that funds meant for patients were being diverted to personal accounts.

It was learnt that the petition has been submitted to various departments of health ministry, as well as the Office of the President Chief of Staff, Minister and Minister of State for Health, Mong others.

The petition reads partly, “His acts of disservice are numerous, but few examples will be discussed under two sub-headings: (i) Incompetent Leadership (ii) Financial Recklessness and Irregularities,” the petition read.

“Incompetent Leadership. The last four years of Dr Owoeye at the helm of affairs of FNPHY have been a case study in incompetent leadership characterised by these:

” i) Lack of clear vision: The medical director lacks a clear vision of what he wants to achieve for the hospital, and this is reflected in knee-jerk decisions that have characterised Dr Owoeye’s headship of hospital.

“An enduring example of this is his overnight decision to demolish the out-patient clinic about three years ago with the promise of building a bigger one within six months. It has been almost three years now and the project is still under construction while clinic patients are consulting with doctors in an open dining hall without regards to privacy and confidentiality. It is a shame that this is happening in this flagship institution. A collaborative and careful planning would have prevented this costly and unnecessary mistake.

“ii) Unilateralism and lack of clear communication: Dr Owoeye erroneously believes that great leadership is leaving team members guessing organisational plans. His deep distrust of people prevents him from sharing information about the plans of the hospital and he does not listen to inputs from stakeholders as he believes that he knows more than everybody. As stated in the example above, his decision to demolish the out-patient clinic was not discussed with the relevant stakeholders. Clinical staff were ordered to evacuate their offices within 24 hours and provision of quality services has nosedived since then.

“iii) Disruption of administrative procedures: Administrative procedures which have served the hospital well over the decades were jettisoned by Dr Owoeye resulting in serious operational dysfunctions. For example, before Owoeye’s coming, the hospital had in place an efficient administrative mechanism for in-patient feeding. The arrangement was so effective such that the institution always had sufficient foodstuffs in store and patients’ meals were rich and served timely. Patient’s food account was also well funded. One of his first actions on assumption was to dismantle the said mechanism and take over the purchase, storage, as well as distribution of foodstuffs to the kitchens.

“The result of this takeover was that by the end of the first year, the hospital had started owing the foodstuff suppliers. As of now, the debts are in millions of Naira, and patients’ meals are poor with frequent delays of up to several hours.

“These delays and poor meal quality have resulted in many protests by the in-patients, but the medical director remains adamant in continuing with his method. Although he often attributes the huge debts to the prevailing economic situation, an independent and discreet investigation would easily reveal his chicanery. As a further example of his disruption of administrative processes, routine maintenance and prompt repairs have become a thing of the past such that many utilities within the wards are in disrepair with attendant inconveniences and risk to patients as well staff members. Broken toilets, broken taps, leaking pipes, torn mosquito’s nets, unhinged doors, defective locks, faulty fans, electrical faults, and many more are the order of the day in the hospital.

“Misappropriation of Patients’ Food Fund: Having solely taken over the administrative mechanism for managing patients’ feeding fund as explained above, Dr Owoeye has free rein to misappropriate patients’ food fund which is obtained from fees paid by patients admitted for treatment. As mentioned earlier, food suppliers are being owed in millions, and patients are frequently denied of meals for which their relations have paid.

“As usual, the medical director has false explanation for all his misdeeds. His alibi for this is that the indigent patients (those without relatives and whose cost of care are being borne by the hospital) are responsible for the insufficiency. However, this is not true as the hospital has only ten indigent patients on admission.

“Moreover, the hospital has always had indigent patients before Dr Owoeye became the medical director.

“Diversion of patients to his private hospital: After ensuring that the hospital can no longer provide high quality care, Dr Owoeye positioned himself to benefit from the hospital’s operational inefficiency by setting up an arrangement to divert hospital’s patients to his own private hospital. Thus, what the hospital loses in internally generated revenue, the medical director gains as revenue for his private hospital, First Health Specialist Clinic, located not far from FNPHY at 33a Abule-Nla, Ebute Metta, Lagos.

“It is to this private hospital that patients are diverted by a network of selected health record officers, junior doctors, nurses, and guards known as crisis intervention personnel.”

“Financial Recklessness and Irregularities

Since his appointment as the medical director in June 2021, there have been numerous instances of financial recklessness and irregularities, which have impacted negatively on the quality of care rendered by the hospital and mental health of the citizens. Some important examples will be presented here. 

“Misappropriation of Drug Revolving Fund (DRF) of the Hospital:  Drug revolving fund is a scheme for providing drugs and medical consumables at cost-price plus a mark-up with the revenue being used to replenish stock, ensuring that genuine medications are available and affordable to those who need them. The mark-up component of the pricing protects against inflation and ensures sustainability. It served this hospital very well for many decades ensuring that our patients had ready access to genuine medications. The hospital DRF was faithfully managed by previous medical directors such that when Dr Owoeye assumed office in 2021, there was about N80million in the hospital DRF account with medications worth about N100million in stock and no debts at all.

“Sadly, as soon as he came in, he started using the DRF for what it is not meant, and the fund became gradually depleted. As of today, the DRF account is virtually empty and pharmaceutical companies (Janssen, Norvatis, Biogenerics, Sanofi, etc) are being owed about N200million because of which they have stopped supplying medications to the hospital. As we write, the hospital pharmacy store is empty, and patients routinely go outside to buy medications from pharmacy shops whose products genuineness cannot be guaranteed. For the patients on admission, the hospital now resorts to piecemeal buying of small quantities of very cheap brands with unverified efficacy. As a result of these irregular supplies, patients on admission often lack required medications resulting in poor response to treatment. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other staff members are frustrated with this situation. In a psychiatric hospital, lack of required medications can result in patients’ violence, and this has happened on many occasions.  

“Unfortunately, Dr Owoeye is not bothered by this turn of event. Instead, he falsely attributes it to the high rate of inflation. He has forgotten that DRF is specially designed to protect against inflation. If the fund had not been diverted, the hospital and patients would not be subjected to this terrible situation. This is a terrible disservice to Nigerians. Please, use your authority to ensure that this does not continue.

“Misappropriation of Patients’ Food Fund: Having solely taken over the administrative mechanism for managing patients’ feeding fund as explained above, Dr Owoeye has free rein to misappropriate patients’ food fund which is obtained from fees paid by patients admitted for treatment. As mentioned earlier, food suppliers are being owed in millions, and patients are frequently denied of meals for which their relations have paid.

“As usual, the medical director has false explanation for all his misdeeds. His alibi for this is that the indigent patients (those without relatives and whose cost of care are being borne by the hospital) are responsible for the insufficiency. However, this is not true as the hospital has only ten indigent patients on admission. Moreover, the hospital has always had indigent patients before Dr Owoeye became the medical director. 

“Diversion of patients to his private hospital: After ensuring that the hospital can no longer provide high quality care, Dr Owoeye positioned himself to benefit from the hospital’s operational inefficiency by setting up an arrangement to divert hospital’s patients to his own private hospital. Thus, what the hospital loses in internally generated revenue, the medical director gains as revenue for his private hospital, First Health Specialist Clinic, located not far from FNPHY at 33a Abule-Nla, Ebute Metta, Lagos. It is to this private hospital that patients are diverted by a network of selected health record officers, junior doctors, nurses, and guards known as crisis intervention personnel.             

“As the saying goes, when the head is rotten, it affects the whole body. Seeing that the medical director engages in these unscrupulous activities, increasing number of staff members are also carrying out various types of sharp practices. The level of staff discipline is fast declining, and the medical director can only look the other way as he is already compromised by his unwholesome activities. It will be a disservice to the good people of this country if Dr Owoeye is allowed to have another four years as the medical director of the hospital.

“Misappropriation of Capital Projects Funds: Dr Owoeye’s corrupt handling of capital projects since assumption of office has been shrouded in secrecy with schemes to cover his frauds. 

Examples of his corrupt activities are too numerous to list here, but the most visible are the out-patient complex (OPC) and the telepsychiatry centre projects which despite millions of Naira are still at a rudimentary stage three year on. As mentioned before, this delay in OPC construction has caused serious disruption of quality service in the hospital.    

“Misappropriation of Intervention Fund: A special FGN intervention fund of about N280million was released to the hospital in December 2024. We understand that the purpose of this fund was to meet certain pressing needs of the hospital. Unfortunately, information at our disposal shows that this fund has been embezzled by Dr Owoeye without addressing any of the pressing needs. There has been so much secrecy about the intervention fund in the hospital, but we know that an independent thorough investigation will reveal the fraud perpetuated by the medical director.      

Conclusion and Requests

“There is no doubt that Dr Olugbenga Owoeye’s leadership of Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba (FNPHY) in the last four years has been a disaster. Under his incompetent watch, quality of care has deteriorated, plights of patients have worsened, indiscipline is rampant, staff morale is at its lowest and financial irregularities as well as corruption are having a field day. 

“Despite the above stated misdeeds, Dr Owoeye hoodwinked the assessment panel sent by the Federal Ministry of Health on 21st March 2025. He stage-managed the assessment process by taking them to renovation projects which he claimed to have carried out, but most of them were projects donated by others. The interiors of the wards were not assessed. Most importantly, the operations and processes of the hospital were not examined. The few members of staff that were interviewed were Dr Owoeye’s compromised loyalists who have been tutored to sing his praise. 

“There is a need for a discreet, independent and comprehensive investigation which he will not be able to compromise. Assuring members of staff of confidentiality will embolden them to report the true situation in the hospital. In addition, his desperate and surreptitious scheming for a second term of four year should be firmly rejected.”

Additional Report: SaharaReporters