Last Chance For JB Pathologist

Dr. Lawrence Edusei, the doctor who performed the autopsy on Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region is racing against time to produce a new autopsy report and present it to the courts.

The Accra Central District Court yesterday gave the doctor up till February 8 to produce a new report for the court.

The pathologist had on January 4 this year, told the court that much needed autopsy report of the murdered MP had gone missing.

Dr. Edusei had claimed that his house was ransacked in September last year resulting in the loss of over thousand files.

U-Turn 

Although he would not directly answer whether or not he had custody of the report since September, Dr. Edusei stated that producing another report required “additional work” indicating that “he is uncertain when the report for the case would be ready.”

However, Dr. Edusei appearing before trial magistrate Arit Nsemoh yesterday said he would prepare a new autopsy report.

He revealed that he is working on the new autopsy and  that he has received pictures from the police to help him come out with a new report

The court, however, gave him up to February 8, 2018 to produce the report.

The court has for the past three months been on the heels of the pathologist in a fruitless attempt to get him before the court to explain why the full autopsy was still not ready months after the death of the MP.

Dr. Edusei had among his claims posited that that the Judicial Service has  not paid him for work done for the past 15 years, a reason he has failed to release any report until the monies were paid him.

Petition

Last Friday, Nana Obiri Boahen, a Private Legal Practitioner and Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) petitioned the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) over what he described as unprofessional, reprehensible and unprofessional conduct of Dr. Edusei.

The lawyer said the matter before the court “had suffered numerous adjournments thereby, stultifying the committal proceedings all because of the conduct and absence of Dr. Lawrence Edusei”.

He added: “I hope; this my petition would be considered and the appropriate sanction accordingly applied”.

Background

On October 10, 2017, the court ordered the pathologist to release the full autopsy report on the former MP for Abuakwa-North to the police to aid investigations into the case.

The order followed an application by the prosecutor who stated that Dr. Edusei had failed to release the report and that all attempts by the police to obtain it had proved futile.

The delay in the release of the report, the police claimed, was hampering their efforts to build a solid case against Daniel Asiedu, 19, aka Sexy Don Don – a phone dealer and Vincent Bosso aka Junior Agogo – a phone repairer over the murder of the legislator fondly called JB.

The accused persons were earlier dragged before the Court two days after an Accra High Court had discharged them over the murder of the legislator.

The Attorney General and Minister for Justice had earlier entered Nolle Prosequi (NP) to drop previous charges against the accused persons in respect of the case which was at the stage of empaneling a seven-member jury for the trial.

By: Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson/ thePublisher