Mirian Gom 
Arinze Onwumelu
LAGOS, Nigeria – A Canada-based Nigerian physician triggers widespread outrage after alleging that some doctors in Nigeria fraudulently diagnose patients with appendicitis, perform sham surgeries and collect fees for procedures that never take place.
In a video circulating widely on social media on Tuesday, Arinze Onwumelu says he personally witnesses the practice while working in Nigeria and other parts of Africa before relocating abroad.
According to Onwumelu, affected patients are falsely told they require urgent appendectomy, wheeled into operating theatres and subjected only to superficial skin incisions, creating scars meant to mimic genuine surgery.
“There are things that are serious and should never be joked with,” he says. “I worked in Nigeria. I saw it with my own eyes. Patients were told they had appendicitis when they did not.”
He explains that the deception often becomes evident years later when patients present abroad with genuine appendicitis. Doctors, misled by surgical scars and patient history, initially rule out appendicitis until scans reveal an intact, inflamed appendix.
“The CT scan shows acute appendicitis,” Onwumelu says. “Then the question comes — where was the appendix removed? Nigeria.”
Medical ethics experts warn that such practices, if proven, constitute gross professional misconduct and criminal fraud, placing patients at severe risk and eroding trust in healthcare systems.
Onwumelu stresses that no economic hardship justifies such actions. “No matter the circumstance,” he adds, “there are lines a medical doctor must never cross.”
The allegations renew calls for stronger hospital oversight, improved patient education and stricter enforcement by Nigeria’s medical regulatory authorities.
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