Ogun seals another illegal nursing school

The Ogun State Nursing and Midwifery Committee, in collaboration with the state Ministry of Health, has sealed another unregistered nursing training institute in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Kayode Oladehinde, disclosed this during a routine monitoring that the institution, iFaat College of Nursing Sciences, located in Adigbe area of the state, was training nursing students without obtaining accreditation from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

Oladehinde, according to the statement on Wednesday, was represented by the Acting Director of Nursing Services and Chairman of SNMC, Mrs. Serifat Aminu, during the routine monitoring exercise.

The Permanent Secretary, during the monitoring exercise, observed that the institute lacked adequate personnel and infrastructure required for standard nursing education, adding that the institute has not received approval from the regulators.

“We have gone out as part of our routine monitoring exercise to inspect institutions that are offering nursing sciences courses and discovered that this particular school has no accreditation.

“For a facility to run a nursing programme, whether at college level or at the university, such a facility must reflect the basic requirements of the NMCN.

“That is why we closed down this place. We have advised the owner that once the infrastructure and personnel in his facility have been upgraded to the expected standards, the NMCN would visit the school for inspection and if they are satisfied, it would be accredited,”  he said.

While advising the public to be cautious about schools that claim to offer nursing sciences courses, Dr Oladehinde said certificates earned from such institutions would not earn the students a license to practice from NMCN, saying such students would eventually become quacks.

Reacting, the proprietor of the institution, Mr. Stephen Fatula, said he had initiated the accreditation process, pledging to abide by the terms of the regulators.

In February, an enforcement team comprising the Ogun State Ministry of Health and Nursing and Midwifery Committee sealed the Nursing Department of Harvarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies, Obada in the Ewekoro Local Government Area of the state.

The state government moved against the school for allegedly offering a degree programme in Nursing Sciences for six years without accreditation from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria. (