Abortion - Medical Officer in court
Bolgatanga (Upper West Region) 04 September 2000
Malam Abass, one of three persons being tried in absentia by a Bolgatanga Circuit Court for an assault on medical officer at the Bolgatanga General Hospital, voluntarily appeared in the courtroom last Thursday.
He entered the dock when the names of seven other accused persons were being called.
Malam Abass was formally charged on two counts of conspiracy to commit crime and assaulting a public officer.
The court presided over by Mr. S.A. Kuoro put him on a five million-cedi bail with one surety and in addition to report to the Bolgatanga District Police Station to write his statement.
Malam Abass would reappear on September 14, with the other accused persons; Adam Mohammed, a businessman, , Abukari Karim, a vulcanizer, Salifu Obey, a driver, Alhassan Sankase, Huudu Yahaya and one Ibrahim.
The accused persons were alleged to be among a group of Muslims, who went to the hospital to collect the body of a dead relative for burial on August 4.
The medical doctor on duty, Dr Hope Glover Addy told them to wait until he had finished attending to some patients in the wards, but the group was dissatisfied with the doctor's excuse and carried him shoulder-high from the consulting room and manhandled him.
They escorted him to the hospital mortuary and attempted to force him to perform autopsy on the dead.
When the doctor resisted they beat him up until some of his colleagues went to his rescue.
GRi…/
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 04
September 2000
Dr Samuel Roberts, 69, proprietor
of Dr Roberts Clinic on Friday appeared before a Kumasi Circuit Tribunal
charged with aiding and abetting in terminating the pregnancy of Akua Akyaa
Hagan, a 20 year-old seamstress.
In the dock with Dr Roberts were
Agnes Ogoe, 20 and Cecilia Dare, 23, both record keepers at the clinic.
They all pleaded not guilty and
were granted bail in the sum of six million cedis with one surety each to
re-appear on September 7.
Prosecuting Police Chief Inspector
Lucy Taylor told the tribunal, chaired by Mr. Justice Ernest Yao Obimpe, that
but for the swift intervention of the police, Akua Hagan would have met her
untimely death on August 30 after Ogoe and Dare had aborted her four-month-old
pregnancy.
When the police got to the scene
at Dr Robert's Clinic at Amakom Roundabout in Kumasi, at about 17:40 hours,
Akua Hagan had regained consciousness but was too weak to walk.
She was bleeding profusely with
her dress soaked in blood and the police had to rush her to Kumasi South
Polyclinic at Kyirapatre, where a medical officer attended to her.
The prosecution said during
investigations, it came to light that Ogoe and Dare, who have no medical
background, terminated the pregnancy.
Chief Inspector Taylor said Dare
admitted terminating Akua’s pregnancy and that he and the other attendant have
been trained by Dr Roberts.
According to the prosecution, the
two attendants claimed they give the money they collect to Dr Roberts and that
they have been doing the job for a long time. They charged Akua Hagan 170,000
cedis.
The Prosecution tendered a number
of instruments allegedly used in the operation as exhibits.
GRi…/