Fake medical practitioner remanded in custody

Accra, Jan. 7, GNA - An Accra Circuit Court has remanded into custody a 47- year-old Ghanaian Kwame Finko Donne on charges of practicing medicine without authority.

Donne has pleaded not guilty and would re-appear on January 19.

A source close to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) said the Bureau had information that, the accused, a Ghanaian claimed to be a medical practitioner, a Gynaecologist and Director of Relief Mankind International, an Aflao-based NGO and a Chief of Lekpe in the Hohoe Municipality.

It said the accused used his house as a hospital with the inscription Atorkukupe Hospital where he treated patients who complained of hypertension, mild stroke, infertility and other ailments.

The source said people trooped to the hospital which had not been registered by the Ghana Medical and Dental Council and charged consultation fees above 2,000 CFA.

It said about a month ago, one Madam Youvo fell sick and was sent to the hospital but could not be treated and died.

When personnel from BNI had the information about the death of the woman, they went there and found the hospital furnished with medical equipment.

Upon interrogation, the accused alleged that he attended University Du-Benin in Togo and Cote d'Ioivre and later in France where he passed out as a medical practitioner.

However, the accused was unable to tell when he entered the medical school or produced his school certificates and admitted that he had not registered his hospital which was being sponsored by a German Company.

The source said the BNI was making frantic efforts to ascertain more facts about the profession of the accussed and documents covering the hospital. GNA