MISSING CORPSE

• 2 Before tribunal

THE Akyem Oda Community Tribunal has remanded two persons in custody for their alleged involvement in the theft of the body of a 27-year-old male adult, which was deposited at the mortuary of the Oda Government Hospital last Saturday.

They are Ayimbila Ayamba, watchman/assistant mortuary attendant, and George Bansah, a former mortuary attendant at the hospital.

They will re-appear before the court presided over by Mr S. D. Alhassan on Wednesday, August 15, this year.

Two other persons, Benjamin Kwadwo Boateng, popularly known as Boat, a senior nurse at the hospital, and Agyei Barfi, a former dispensing assistant at the hospital, who are suspected to have played a role in the crime have been granted self-cognisance bail to assist the police in their investigations.

Prosecuting, Inspector Osei Nimo of the Oda Police, told the crowded court that on Thursday, August 2, this year, a taxi with registration number GW 4154R, which was heading for Oda from Accra collided head-on with an Agona Swedru bound Nissan mini bus at Akyem Asene.

He said the accident claimed the lives of a driver, Kwaku Amparbeng, a citizen of Asene, and an eight-year-old school girl, Naami Tetteh, who hailed from Akyem Swedru. Both of them were in the taxi.

Inspector Nimo said the bodies of the two deceased persons were sent to the Oda Government Hospital where they were deposited at the morgue after a doctor had performed the post mortem examination on them.

He stated that when the relatives of the deceased driver went to the hospital on Saturday to attend to the body, the assistant mortuary attendant told them that the corpse had mysteriously vanished.

Inspector Nimo said after the relatives of the deceased had made fruitless attempt to see the corpse, they lodged a compliant with the police.

He said police investigations led to the arrest of the four suspects.

When Dr Emmanuel Tetteh-Ashong, Principal Medical Officer

in charge of the

Oda Government Hospital was contacted on the issue, he expressed shock at the mysterious disappearance of the corpse.

He said after he had performed the autopsy on the body of Amparbeng, he left for home after he had instructed the mortuary attendant to deposit it in the morgue.

According to Dr Tetteh-Ashong, in the early hours of last Saturday, August 4, the mortuary attendant informed him at his residence that the corpse of Amparbeng could not be found in the morgue.

He said he rushed to the mortuary where he detected that some unidentified people had broken into the morgue through the window to steal the body from the refrigerator.

Dr Tetteh-Ashong said he made reports to the Oda District Commander, the Divisional Police Commander and the Divisional Crime Officer about the incidence.

He said the hospital’s Interim Management Committee held an emergency meeting to deliberate on how to retrieve the corpse.

According to Dr Tetteh-Ashong, the damaged window have been repaired and reinforced while the mortuary area has been declared a security zone, restricting unauthorised people from entering the it.

He added that the salaries of all the watchmen at the morgue have been withheld pending further punitive action and their possible dismissal and replacement by more committed watchmen.

He said the faulty lock of the old fridge in which corpses are deposited has also been repaired and put under key and lock.

Again, Dr Tetteh-Ashong said the hospital authorities have held discussions with the relatives of Amparbeng on how best the missing corpse could be retrieved for a decent burial.

He said the family of the deceased have agreed to co-operate with the hospital authorities to investigate the circumstances leading to the loss of the body.

Dr Tetteh-Ashong said the family originally planned to bury the body last Saturday.