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Odumase Krobo Nursing, Midwifery College initiates steps for diploma progammes
Dr Winfred Korletey Baah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA), has initiated steps for the Odumase Krobo Nursing and Midwifery Training College to be accredited to start offering diploma programmes in nursing, midwifery, and public health.
Dr Baah, who is also a Consultant Physician, appealed for the fast-tracking of the accreditation process to enable it to fulfil its mandate and the mission for its establishment.
At a meeting with Dr Awoonor Williams, Technical Adviser for the Minister of Health, and the Head of the Health Training Institutions at the Ministry of Health (MoH), Dr Baah noted that most nursing and midwifery training colleges were being accredited to run degree programmes.
Dr Baah said the Odumase Krobo Nursing and Midwifery College could not continue to train and award certificates in nursing assistant (preventive) programmes only.
Established in 2015, the college has only been running a two-year health care/ nursing assistants (preventive) programme.
According to Dr Baah, the college was established to train general nurses, midwives and public health nurses.
He noted, however, that because of the delay in securing the necessary accreditation, it has been operating below its capacity and mandate, necessitating the ongoing intervention for an immediate accreditation for the commencement of diploma programmes in line with the vision that fuelled its establishment.
Dr Baah expressed optimism that with the ongoing efforts and collaboration between the MoH and HeFRA and other relevant institutions, actions and the accreditation processes would be expedited for the college to commence diploma programmes in general nursing, midwifery and public health this year.
The diploma programmes will commence this year, hopefully, given the assurances I have received from the ministry,” he said.
The college, which operated in temporary facilities for five years at Odumase, relocated to its current permanent site south of the Odumase township in 2020.
It presently boasts a population of nearly 400 students made up of first- and second-year students reading the health care/nursing assistants (preventive) programme.
—GNA
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Evangelist Mama Pat sentenced to 15 years in prison for defrauding by false pretence
Founder of the Heaven Way Champion International Ministry at Weija, Patricia Asiedua, also known as Agradaa has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in hard labour by the Accra Circuit Court.
This was after the court found her guilty on multiple counts of defrauding by false pretence and charlatanic advertisment in newspapers.
The self-styled evangelist used her church to defraud members of the public under the guise of “money doubling.”
Before passing sentence, the judge ordered that pregnancy test be conducted on her.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
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Court awards GHC750,000 damages against ABSA Bank for defamation
A High court in Accra (General Jurisdiction 7) has awarded a cost of GH750,000 against ABSA Bank Ghana Limited for defaming Mr Adri Hopson, a real estate developer.
In 2019, Mr Hopson, the plaintiff sold two separate two-bedroom houses to two employees of the Bank, Isaac Quao and Linda Mokeh.
The plaintiff had stated in his writ of summons filed by his lawyer, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo that he was subsequently invited by the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to respond to a complaint of fraud lodged against him by the Bank, the defendant, regarding his sale of encumbered properties to its two employees.
Meanwhile, the plaintiff had argued that the properties were not encumbered in any way, therefore, the act of the defendant in lodging a complaint against him was defamatory.
Mr Hopson contends that he was not involved in any contract or transaction with the defendant Bank.
In his judgement on May 22, the presiding judge, Justice Ali Baba Abature held that the complaint of defrauding by false pretences lodged against the plaintiff by the defendant Bank was defamatory as it was made out of malice without probable and reasonable cause, thereby harming the reputation of the plaintiff as a successful and respected. businessman.
Justice Abature stated that the two workers of the Bank were in occupation of the properties the plaintiff genuinely sold to them, with one of them admitting that she has registered her title to the property she purchased.
Consequently, the judge awarded GH300,000 in general damages to be paid to the plaintiff by the defendant, punitive damages of GH300,000, compensatory damages of GH150,000. and costs, including services cost of GH100,000 against defendant in favour of the plaintiff.
The defendant had told the court that the plaintiff mortgaged the properties he sold to its employees, but Nii Addo, counsel for the plaintiff averred that the
properties the defendant claimed were mortgaged by his client were not the properties sold to the two employees of the defendant.
It was the case of the plaintiff that he dealt with the defendant’s two employees in good faith and did not suppress any material fact from the employees and that malice occurred on the part of the defendant when the complaint of fraud was made to the police with intent to harm his image or reputation.
The defendant, on the other hand, denied all the averments of the plaintiff.
In its statement of defence, ABSA averred that the results of an initial search conducted by its Central Securities Unit (CSU) on the properties sold to its two employees by the plaintiff indicated that there were no encumbrances on the property before it accepted the mentioned employees’ application for a mortgage under its Bank Staff Mortgage Loan Policy.
However, the defendant stated that subsequent investigations at the time the said employees’ mortgage documents were submitted to the Land Title Division for registration of its interest in the properties by virtue of the mortgage loan it granted to the two employees for the purchase of the properties have revealed that the properties the plaintiff sold to its two employees were encumbered as a mortgage had already been registered on the said properties.
Consequently, the defendant’s mortgage interest charge in the two properties could not be registered thereby rendering the mortgage facility it granted to its two mentioned employees unsecure.
As a result, ABSA said its Fraud Risk Management and Investigations Unit was commissioned to conduct forensic investigations into the conduct of the plaintiff, and the investigation report revealed that that the Plaintiff had mortgaged certain properties including the two that Plaintiff sold to its employees to First Trust Savings and Loans for a loan facility.
Defendant therefore lodged a complaint with the Regional Crime Officer of the Greater Accra Regional Police Command to investigate the matter.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
