The Lagos State Government has dismissed claims circulating on social media that six first-class medical graduates were forced out of the state for not being Yoruba or failing to present membership cards of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The allegation was made by an X user in a video, prompting a response from the Senior Special Assistant on Media to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Wale Ajetunmobi, who described the claims as false.
6 FIRST CLASS DOCTORS CHASED OUT OF LAGOS FOR NOT BEING YORUBAS OR NOT HAVING AN APC CARD https://t.co/boUN6XtTxN
— Lilian Ogechi (@Adaigboglobal) November 10, 2026
Ajetunmobi said the Lagos State Health Service Commission had never politicised or ethnicised recruitment into the state’s public health system, including the recruitment of medical graduates for housemanship.
He explained that the Health Service Commission, which operates as a statutory body with its own Permanent Secretary, is responsible for recruitment into the public health system and has the governor’s approval to replace medical personnel who leave the service.
According to him, hundreds of health workers from outside Lagos, including people of South-East origin, currently work in the state’s public health system without being required to provide evidence of political affiliation or ethnic identity.
Ajetunmobi also questioned the claim that the individuals involved were first-class medical graduates, arguing that Nigerian and African institutions do not award first-class degrees in medicine.
He, however, used derogatory language in criticising those he accused of spreading the allegation and described the claims as an attempt to inflame ethnic and political tensions.
These claims expressed in the video are all lies from the depths of hell, to start with.
At no point has the Lagos State Health Service Commission (HSC) politicised or ethnicised recruitment into the main system, let alone a housemanship where medical graduates are absorbed for a fixed term.
Anyone familiar with the Lagos health sector knows the Ministry of Health does not hold sole authority to place staff in the public health system. The statutory body that recruits is the Health Service Commission (HSC), which is overseen by its own distinctive Permanent Secretary. Although HSC is an attachment to the Ministry of Health, it is not a pliant agency under it.
Secondly, recruitment occurs constantly in HSC because medical staff regularly leave for Japa abroad. The Commission, then, has the Governor Sanwo-Olu’s explicit approval to recruit and replace personnel leaving the system as needed without a new memo to that effect.
HSC operates like a quasi-private firm where merit and professionalism are highly considered. There are hundreds of employees currently in the Lagos public health system who come from outside of the state, and none were asked for party membership or ‘ethnic passport’ before being absorbed.
In short, there are hundreds of medical personnel of South East origin currently working in Lagos HSC. So, why have they not been asked to resign because of their ethnic origin or political views?
Why do these godforsaken Obidient bastards always want to heat up the polity with their hoax stories? Same people who openly play tribal politics without remorse! Where did they get the idea that Lagos HSC asks people to submit APC membership cards or show their Yoruba identity before being recruited as staff or house officers?
The specific misbegotten individuals in this video revealed their shallow understanding of academic grading. Which institution in Nigeria or Africa awards First Class certificates to doctors? Abeg, which school did these barbaric bums attend? 🥸
— AJE (@Riddwane) November 11, 2026
