A senior laboratory assistant at the Abura Government Hospital in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese District of the Central Region has been remanded into prison custody for allegedly selling blood samples he takes from pregnant women to money ritualists.
The lab assistant, Stephen Nyan as part of his duties of drawing blood samples from the pregnant women who visit the hospital for testing, allegedly draws the blood in excess and secretly accumulates the blood samples before selling to the ritualists who are popularly referred to as 'sakawa boys'.
A search of his residence revealed many pints of blood which he had readied to be sold to the 'sakawa boys' at price ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 Ghana cedis depending on the buyer's bargaining skills.
Confirming the incident to Joy News' Richard Kojo Nyarko, the Central Regional Police PRO, Irene Oppong, disclosed that the lab assistant was caught after the police made an investigator pose as a buyer and negotiated a sale leading to the arrest and him being charged with stealing and the subsequent prosecution.
According to the Central Regional Police PRO, the charge of stealing is because the suspect took blood samples which originally should belong the hospital to his home without the proper authorisation and had thus stolen the samples.
The suspect is to reappear before the Cape Coast Circuit Court on April 24.
The development has shocked residents of the town who are blaming the suspect for the deaths of over 50 mothers and babies whom they claim died under mysterious circumstances over the last year.