An Accra circuit court on Tuesday, acquitted Dr Dominic Kwame Obeng-Andoh, the Proprietor of the Obengfo Hospital located at Weija in Accra.
He was charged for being an unregistered practitioner and operating an unlicensed health facility but the court said it did not find Dr Obeng-Andoh culpable because of the way the charges were framed by the prosecution.
The presiding judge, Mr Justice Emmanuel Essandoh, a high court judge sitting as an additional circuit judge, in a 100-page ruling, said: “He has entered through the eye of the law”, ruling that the charges were lumped together instead of separating them.
Mr Justice Essandoh said there were also inconsistencies in the evidence given by the prosecution witnesses.
By so doing, the evidence was discredited and insufficient, thus, leaving the court not convinced and unimpressed about the veracity of the case, he explained.
According to the Judge, the police did not give the accused the opportunity to confirm the evidence collected from his facility.
The judge also described the charges as “diametrically apart,” saying, there was no document to corroborate the offence of failure to operate without a licence.
Dr Obeng’s counsel, in appreciation, stated that the ruling was decisive and extensive, which would stand as an authority for years to come.
The lawyer had applied for submission of no case after the prosecution had made its case and the court ruled on it.
The Medical and Dental Council, during its routine monitoring in July 2015, received information that Dr Obeng-Andoh had failed to renew his annual licence to practise and to operate the private facility.
Armed with this information, the Council made a complaint with the police, which led to his arrest on December 28, 2016. GNA
