The administrator of the Upper East Regional Hospital, Samuel Atuba, is due to enter the witness box of the circuit court in Bolgatanga on Monday, 9 June 2025— a year after two employees of the hospital confessed in the same court that they stole from the sick.
He is going into the box to give his evidence as a witness for the state on that day in relation to the massive thefts of medications uncovered at the hospital by Media Without Borders in 2023.
He was at the scene when the first suspect was arrested on the night of Friday, 4 August 2023. But he arrived, panting and covered in sweat, when the drama that unfolded was about to end. It was the climax of a one-year investigation carried out by the author of this report.
“Raymond, you?” he said in disbelief at the scene, pointing his forefinger at a red-shirted man, a driver employee of the hospital.
The driver was standing by a red car, with his hands cuffed in front and armed police officers surrounding him on the premises of a near-abandoned building.
That near-forsaken structure was where a cartel responsible for rampant disappearances of medicines at the government hospital had been hiding medications stolen from the hospital before they were transported during the hours of darkness out of the region for sale.
For two years, tons of medicines, worth millions of Ghana cedis and not meant for sale, left the hospital’s premises without the management’s notice. Patients, young and old, reportedly suffered needless deaths during those years because of drug shortages at the hospital.
The driver was moving the hospital’s medicines in boxes out of that building into the red car when the author of this report led the police team to the location.
“Raymond,” the administrator called again, looking at the driver and almost breaking down in tears.
The driver was speechless. He gazed in horror at his disappointed boss and kept looking at him without blinking until he (the administrator) turned to the law enforcers.
The administrator told the police officers at the scene that the stealing had been happening “for the past two years” but the hospital’s management had no idea how to “catch them red-handed.”
The police team drove out of the scene, taking away the driver, 34 boxes of assorted medicines retrieved from the building and a red car owned by another suspect. Their drive ended at the divisional police headquarters in Bolgatanga after picking up a second suspect at her home that night.
The administrator took his leave, too, going back in the same direction he had followed to the scene. He walked at the pace of a man who could not wait to share with the rest of the hospital’s management staff his undivided shock and a discovery that just blew his mind.
He now may have more to tell the court as the administrator of the hospital (the victim of the thefts) when he steps into the witness box early next month to deliver his evidence.
So far, the author of this story and a police detective, Inspector Eric Negble, have given evidence in court on the case.
Post-arrest deaths of prospective witnesses
The medicines, which are still in police custody, were due to expire in 2025 as of the time three suspects— Fasilat Raheem, Bridget Banoeyelle and Raymond Asoke— were taken into police custody.
And the conditions in which the medications were hidden in that building may have rendered them less potent even before the expiration dates were due.
The suspects did not mention the names of those who had been buying the stolen medicines from the syndicate during police interrogations and questioning. They did not name others involved in the conspiracy.
While the suspects were in police cells in 2023, two people who could have supported the prosecution (the government’s side in the criminal case) as witnesses died mysteriously just one month apart.
Mercy Alagpulinsa, a trader, died on Tuesday, 15 August 2023— a week after the suspects’ first appearance in court. She was taken ill just one hour after she honoured an invitation for a private meeting from a husband to one of the accused persons and died at the Upper East Regional Hospital hours after that meeting.
Samuel Amoateng Saffoh, the head of the hospital’s pharmacy department, died on Saturday, 23 September 2023. His death occurred in a strange manner just two days after he openly declared his determination to get to the bottom of the drug-theft scandal.
Amoateng (as he was better known) had even set up his own audit team to take stock of all the medicines the hospital received from the Ministry of Health (MoH) between 2021 and 2023 before he suddenly died. An autopsy report showed that he was poisoned, according to reliable sources.
Other key developments
Members of the public went on a street demonstration on Friday, 18 August 2023, in the region after learning that some politicians and traditional authorities were planning to interfere in the trial of the accused persons.
The demonstrators warned them to stay away from the case and urged the police to go after other members of the cartel.
On Thursday, 4 April 2024, one of the lawyers for the accused persons, Lwanga Saanyeh Bagonluri, wrote a letter to the Attorney-General’s office, begging on his knees for a plea-bargain negotiation on behalf of two of the accused persons— Raheem and Banoeyelle.
The plea-bargain letter came after the Regional State Attorney, Joyce Debrah, filed government’s disclosures, including evidence provided by Media Without Borders, in court against the accused persons.
Asoke did not enter a plea agreement. His lawyer, Richard Adongo, is contesting the charges being pressed against his client by the prosecution.
The hospital served immediate-suspension letters on the three accused persons following Media Without Borders‘ investigation and the Bolgatanga police arrests.
The suspension falls in line with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures.
Not long afterwards, the hospital’s management also announced it had tightened up security around its medicine warehouse to prevent anyone or any syndicate from stealing from the sick.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
