According to a cover story by The African Guardian:
The Anambra State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) was the first to dismiss the announcement as a sham. Its chairman, Professor Paul Chuke, and secretary, Dr John Oli, described Ugo’s claim as “false and unfortunate.” They argued that the Enugu team lacked the sophisticated equipment, laboratory facilities, and expertise required for the delicate IVF process.
Ugo fired back, accusing the NMA leadership of jælousy and of cøndemning his work without inspecting his laboratory or practice. He møcked orthodox medicine for lagging behind developments in alternative medical practice.
It took the Buhari regime nearly a year to set up a five-member panel of medical experts to investigate the claim. By then, a team at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) had also announced it was close to achieving an IVF breakthrough.
During the panel’s visit to Enugu, its chairman, Professor Adesanya Ige Grillo, reportedly asked Ugo’s wife, a Greek doctor who was part of the team, why she did not return to her country to carry out the breakthrough. A Yoruba member of the Enugu team was also asked what he was doing with an Igbo group.
After the visit, one panel member, Dr Bodunrin Oluwa, a homeopathic practitioner in private practice, resigned in prøtest, citing Grillo's bias and what he described as the panel’s shabby conduct in Enugu.
In June 1985, Grillo petitioned the police, accusing Ugo of possessing forged certificates and running an unregistered clinic. He claimed there was no school of homeopathy in Thessaloniki, Greece, where Ugo said he was trained.
Ugo and other members of his team were detained for 42 days.
On July 1, 1985, Grillo announced the panel’s findings: the LUTH team was legitimate, while the Enugu team, he said, was made up of frāuds not certified to practise homeopathic medicine.
The Greek school later replied Nigerian authorities, confirming that Dr Ugo’s certificate was genuine.
However, the Babangida regime upheld the panel’s verdict in an announcement on May 1, 1986. The statement said Dr Ugo's claim could "dent the credibility of Nigeria within and outside the country."
During its own investigation, The African Guardian interviewed two parents who said they had struggled with infertility until they participated in Ugo’s trials and each later had a child.
The news magazine concluded that the scàndal ultimately was about the unresolved tension between orthodox medical practice and alternative medicine in Nigeria.
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