Suspects and the boxes of medicine
A Bolgatanga Circuit Court has remanded in custody the three people arrested by police in connection with the stealing of assorted medicines from the Upper East Regional Hospital’s Medical Store in Bolgatanga.
Sumaila Amadu, the judge, remanded Raheem Fasilat, Bridget Noeyelle, and Raymond Asoke to reappear in court on August 22, 2023, after they pleaded not guilty to three counts of stealing, abetment, and conspiracy to steal.
Raheem Fasilat, until his arrest, was the Regional Medical Storekeeper at the hospital, whilst Bridget Noeyelle, was an Assistant Dispensary Officer at the hospital’s pharmacy and Raymond Asoke, a driver.
According to a DAILY GUIDE source, the police are likely to pick up other suspects during the course of their inquiry, as medicine theft has long been a problem at the hospital.
On Friday, August 4, at around 9:00 p.m., police officers arrested Raymond Asoke, the driver, at an abandoned facility at Zaare, a suburb of the Bolgatanga Municipality, following a tip from an informant who had been following a hint on the activities of some Regional Hospital staff for months.
He was arrested as he was loading new boxes of medicines from the nearly abandoned structure into a saloon car with registration number GE 1532 -21.
There were 12 stolen boxes of essential drugs in the car, whereas 22 more boxes of drugs labeled ‘not for sale’ were discovered in the abandoned structure, which is thought to have been used for several operations.
Some of the medicines were doses of injection powder, metronidazole injections, anti-malaria tablets, anesthesia and packs of drips.
Further investigation led to the arrest of suspect Raheem Fasilat, who admitted to giving the boxes of essential drugs to the driver, according to a police statement. Bridget Noeyelle was also arrested during the investigation.
Meanwhile, the arrest of the three suspects has got residents ecstatic, calling on the police to go after everyone involved in the theft.
Some residents who spoke to the DAILY GUIDE said they had suspected some people working at the health institution of theft, but were unable to denounce them for arrest because they lacked evidence to back up their suspicions.
From Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga