Businesswoman charged with defrauding contractor
Mortuary attendants granted bail
Accra (Greater Accra) 26 June 2000
The Osu Community Tribunal on Monday remanded in police custody a businesswoman who allegedly collected 1,700 dollars and 1,500 pounds from a building contractor, under the pretext of sending two of his friends to the US.
Diana Apenteng, 29, pleaded not guilty to defrauding by false pretences. She was remanded for further investigations and will reappear on June 29.
The tribunal chaired by Mrs Ivy Heward-Mills heard that in September last year, the complainant, Mr Kofi Ofori Boahene wanted help for two of his friends to travel to the US.
Mr Boahene was introduced to Apenteng who promised to assist and collected 1,700 dollars and 1,500 pounds from Mr Boahene in order to process travelling documents and the fare.
According to the prosecution, the accused managed to send the two persons to Kenya and abandoned them there, until the complainant raised an extra 400 dollars to bring them back to Ghana.
Mr Boahene confronted Apenteng who promised to refund the money, but failed to do so and went into hiding. When she was arrested she issued a dud cheque for 4.6 million cedis.
GRi../
Sekondi (Western Region) 26 June 2000
Five mortuary attendants made their second appearance before a Community Tribunal in Sekondi on Monday for their involvement in the disappearance of a corpse at the mortuary of the Effia Nkwanta Hospital.
The body of Obaapayin Grace Duncan, aged 87, was deposited at the mortuary on April 15 this year but was found missing when relatives went to collect it in the early hours of June 1.
Obaapayin Duncan, whose body is yet to be found, left behind five children, 34 grand children and 44 great grand children.
The mortuary attendants are Isaac Quayson, 54, Samuel Duku, 30, and Simon Baidoo, 36, from the Effia Nkwanta Hospital Mortuary.
The rest are Joseph Dadzie, 42 and Kwesi Amoani, 57, from the Cape Coast University Hospital Mortuary. Their pleas were not taken and they were granted five million cedis bail each with two sureties to re-appear on June 29. Three others whose names were not disclosed are at large.
Earlier the prosecution told the Tribunal that the deceased, was admitted at the Effia Nkwanta hospital on April 13 but died on April 15. The body was embalmed, given tag number 41 and placed in refrigerator B3 but on June 1, after the family had paid the storage fee of 397,000 cedis, the mortuary attendants informed them that the corpse was missing.
The family not satisfied with the explanation of the attendants reported the matter to the Police. Upon a tip-off, the Police went to the Cape Coast University Hospital where the body was allegedly sent without any transfer or death certificate but the corpse could not be traced.
The prosecution said the two attendants from Cape Coast, Dadzie and Amoani admitted that an already embalmed corpse was sent to the mortuary from Effia Nkwanta Hospital.
They claimed that they forgot to register the corpse in their records book and failed to demand documents covering the body from two women and a man who deposited and later collected the corpse.
Before granting them bail, Mr. Eric Baah, Chairman of the Tribunal said that it is a mystery that such a thing should happen in a society, which values its dead.
He noted that the family is undergoing stress and urged the Police and the Mortuary attendants to recover the corpse and find the three persons now at large as early as possible.
Relations and friends of the deceased, who thronged the tribunal in mourning cloth, burst into tears and urged the Chairman to do something about their plight, when the attendants were granted bail. It took over 10 minutes to restore order.
GRi../