General News of Wednesday, 11 April 2018
Source: mynewsgh.com
2018-04-11
Colleagues of the accused have threatened a strike action to support him
24-year-old Ernest Green was on Monday, April 9, 2018, remanded into prison custody by a Tamale Circuit Court to reappear on April 25, after he was accused of raping a 24-year-old European tourist.
MyNewsGH.com which has been following the case since last week and thus report;
The alleged victim (name withheld) was rushed to the facility on Thursday, April 5, 2018. She came in with complaints of diarrhoea (passed stool 10x before 8 am) and fever, blood film for malaria parasite proved positive for malaria.
She claimed to have been attended to earlier in the day at the Mole clinic where a rapid diagnostic test was negative for malaria though checks at the Mole Clinic by MyNewsGH.com revealed no records of her.
She came into the ward of the West Gonja Catholic hospital in the company of two young men with one claiming to be a health personnel.
According to the victim, she had no money at the time of her admission and so gave her ATM VISA card to the two young men who accompanied her to the facility to withdraw money in town, but they later came back without the money.
In the complainant’s account, the suspect later approached her and told her the hospital has a private ward and asked if she would like to take it and she agreed in view of her condition.
She, however, got up at dawn and managed to make it to the washroom and on her return, she found it difficult to climb back on to the bed and the suspect came in around that time to assist her onto the bed.
The suspect she later alleged, sat by her side and started touching her but she was too weak to resist and that suddenly, the suspect took her breast into his mouth, pulled her panties and had unprotected sex with her.
Arrest and detention
The suspect was later arrested by the Damango police after a complaint was lodged with the police for an alleged rape on Friday, April 6, 2018.
Northern Regional Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Yussif Tanko confirmed his arrest to MyNewsGH.com and disclosed that the matter had been referred to Regional Criminal Investigations Department in Tamale for further investigations.
Ernest Green was on Monday arraigned before a Tamale Circuit Court and provisionally charged with indecent assault and rape.
He was subsequently remanded into prison custody to reappear on April 25, 2018, after his lawyers failed to secure his bail.
Police Storm Hospital in search of more evidence characterized by chaos
On the same Monday he was arraigned before court, there was near chaos at the West Gonja Hospital when investigators and armed policemen from the Regional CID in Tamale stormed the facility for further evidence regarding the rape case that was allegedly reported to have happened at the facility.
The investigators came along with the victim, the accused, officials of the Italian Embassy in Ghana and a SWAT team of armed police officers including personnel from the West Gonja District Police command.
Angry workers of the hospital and other residents of the town expressed their frustration and unhappiness in the twist of events
They felt the victim was overly protected at the expense of their colleague who is yet to be proven guilty maintaining that results of the tests supposed to be carried out on the case are delaying fearing the delay could change the actual outcome.
It was an emotional scene as the accused was whisked off in a waiting police van after investigations at the hospital amidst insults hurled at the victim.
There was near physical confrontation between one of the armed policemen and a nurse regarding.
Nurses and support staff declare a strike in solidarity
Nurses and other health staff at the facility on Tuesday declared a sit-down strike in protest against the arrest and detention of their colleague.
The aggrieved workers at a press conference vowed to abandon patients on admission at the facility if their grievances are not immediately addressed within a stipulated period.
The angry staff mostly made up of nurses, pharmacists, laboratory technicians, doctors, administrators and non-medical staff insist that their colleague has been framed up by the victim and are demanding his immediate release.