ZONGO YOUTH LAWLESSNESS YIELD RESULT IN "MISSING BABY SAGA"

The Ministry of Health has directed the doctor and nurse under whose supervision a still-born baby was declared missing to proceed on leave.

The unfortunate incident which took place at the Akomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi about two weeks ago was triggered when a Muslim lady by name Suwaiba put to birth in the said hospital and demanded for the body of her baby after she was told it was a still- birth.

The inability of the hospital officials to produce the corps of Suwaiba's dead baby reportedly led to someyouth from the Muslim community(zongo youths) taking the law into their own hands, invading the hospital and subsequently assaulting some of the health workers.

The doctors and nurses in anger and in fear of further attacks withdrew their services for about a week. They returned only after several appeals and promises of increased police presence to secure the hospital and their private homes.

Suwaiba allegedly demanded the body of her baby in order to bury him in accordance with her Islamic traditions but all efforts to retrieve the body proved futile although she had earlier been made to thumb print a document confirming the death of her baby..

According to some nurses at the KATH, an orderly, hired only two weeks before the incident, picked the baby with instructions to take it to the morgue but a search at the mortuary revealed the body had not been deposited there. Nurses say the orderly initially claimed he incinerated the body of the baby but the hospital authorities have denied the claim saying the incinerator had not been used in several days.

The Kumasi Police after some investigations are reported to have arrested seven unidentified people believed to be staff of the same hospital with stealing and conspiracy to steal a baby. The Hospital authorities have promised to liaise with the police to get to the bottom of the matter.

SOURCE: LURENCIA BOSSMAN,ACCRA.