Final warning given to JB’s pathologist

An Accra Central District Court presided over by Arit Nsemoh, has given the pathologist who conducted an autopsy on the slain New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region, JB Danquah-Adu, up to February 8, 2018 to release the report.

Dr. Lawrence Edusei, a retired pathologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, on January 4, 2018, told the court that his residence was burgled and so he had lost quite a number of autopsy reports.

He could, however, not tell the court whether the late JB Danquah’s post-mortem report was among those stolen.

He was subsequently asked by the court what he would need to reproduce a new report.

Dr Edusei said re-writing the report would need additional work to be done, stating that he would need access to all pictures taken during the post-mortem so that he could “take a good look at them to recollect.”

He told the court on Thursday that he had received the pictures he requested from the police to help him come out with a new report, and that he was working on it (report).

The court subsequently gave him up to February 8, 2018 to produce it.

Dr Edusei has over the past months been playing hide-and-seek with the court, which ordered him to release the report to the police or come and explain reasons behind the delay in its release.

Although two separate summonses were served on him to appear before the court, he failed to comply.

The magistrate, Mr Arit Nsemoh, whose patience had been dared so many times, subsequently ordered the court’s registry to serve a witness subpoena on the pathologist to appear before the court.

At the last adjourned date, Dr. Edusei stated that he had performed thousands of post-mortems and could not say with certainty when he did that of the late MP’s.

Asked by the magistrate why he did not furnish the court with the report when he concluded the post-mortem, he said the Judicial Service had not paid him for services rendered for the past 15 years and had thus decided to hoard the reports until he was paid.

The magistrate, however, restrained him from saying anything further on the debt owed him and urged him to limit his responses to the JB Danquah case.

He told the court that he could not single out the JB case, stating that “in medicine, you cannot give specific answers to specific questions,” a claim the magistrate did not take lightly.

Two suspects, Daniel Asiedu, 19, aka Sexy Don Don – phone dealer and Vincent Bosso aka Junior Agogo, phone repairer – are before the court for allegedly murdering the late MP.

The case is still at committal stage awaiting the AG’s advice and the autopsy report, which plays a huge role in determining the fate of the two suspects.

Petition

The conduct of the pathologist has led to a petition filed by Nana Obiri Boahen, a deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), calling on the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to institute punitive measures against Dr Edusei.

The petition, filed at the “Enso Nyameye Chambers,” a Sunyani-based legal firm, described the conduct of Dr Edusei not only as “reprehensible,” but also unacceptable.

The petition – copies of which were sent to the Medical and Dental Council and Dr Edusei – noted that the trial had “suffered numerous adjournments, thereby stultifying the committal proceedings, all because of the conduct of Dr Edusei.”

Nana Obiri Boahen asserted, “I have been attending court proceedings, and I have been doing so by watching brief for the NPP, sympathizers, friends and relatives of the assassinated MP and I am ever ready to appear in person to proffer much information and evidence.”