Tribunal remands self-styled nurse in prison custody

A 41-year-old self-styled nurse, Agnes Opoku-Agyeman, who was arrested by the Police for allegedly practising medicine without authority was on Friday remanded in prison custody by a Kumasi Circuit Tribunal to re-appear on May 2.

She pleaded not guilty.

The tribunal, chaired by Justice Ernest Yao Obimpeh, refused her bail on the grounds that the prosecution needed time to complete its investigations.

The tribunal heard that at about 09:00 hours, on April 26, Ministry of Health personnel, who were carrying out polio immunisation exercise at the Central Market arrested the accused for injecting people against Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM) for a fee of 2,000 cedis each.

When the accused was questioned, she claimed to be a nurse but said no one authorised her to practise at the market.

The accused was arrested with syringes and needles and 407,000 cedis and when she was sent to the Regional Police CID, she told the police that she is a state registered nurse at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) having passed out in 1978.

Accused said someone she could not identify sold the vaccine to her for 300,000 cedis, the prosecution added.

The prosecution said the accused had already injected 600 people at the time of her arrest.