Mahama gunman’s recovery slower than expected – Chief Psychiatrist

Chief Psychiatrist and Director of the Mental Health Authority, Dr Akwasi Osei has disclosed that the recovery process of Charles Antwi, the mentally challenged man who wanted to kill President John Mahama last year, has been slower than expected.

According to him, although Mr Antwi has responded positively to treatment, it was expected that by mid-February he would have been discharged from the hospital, but that is not possible as he will have to be observed a bit longer.

An Accra High Court referred Charles Antwi to the psychiatric hospital for treatment after it quashed a judgment by a Circuit Court sentencing him to ten years in prison.

He had proceeded to the Ringway Assemblies of God Church were President John Mahama and his family worships to assassinate the first gentleman of the land, in order for him to become the President of Ghana, a position, according to his friends and family, he has always claimed for years as rightfully his.

He was convicted based on his own plea of planning to assassinate the President and for the unlawful possession of a fully loaded locally manufactured pistol.

Charles Antwi’s conviction was met with much criticism following concerns raised about the state of his mental health.

Speaking to Kasapa News, Dr Akwesi Osei stated that Charles Antwi will be released only when doctors handling him are strongly convinced that he is fully cured.

“We were expecting to release him by next month, but after studying him a bit more, we think we’ll have to keep him here for further observation. His progress has not been as expected though he’s doing well; we made a change in his medication. By April, we expect him to be fully fit by then and discharged. When he is released he will need to go by the medication we have prescribed for him. His family must see to it that he goes by the treatment regime or else he can suffer a relapse.” Dr Osei noted.