Investigate Excuse Duties Issued By Hospitals - Court Declares

Ms Ellen Vivian Amoah, a Circuit Court Judge, on Thursday ordered the police to investigate the authenticity of excuse duties provided by accused persons appearing before the courts. She also appealed to the police to pay casual visits to the hospitals to ascertain the truth of those excuse duties to dissuade the habits cultivated by some suspects. According to her, some of the excuse duties which kept frequenting her court required investigations to confirm or deny the issues. Ms Amoah said there was an instance where a man had furnished the court that he was sick but he was found out to be hanging out in a drinking bar the following day. There had been instances where some patients connive with some doctors to issue such excuse duties. This came up when a case involving one Nana Abeka, who allegedly issued a dud cheque, was to appear before her but failed to do so. Abeka�s sister, who furnished the court with the excuse duty, indicated that Nana was sick and as such could not appear before the court. The accused person�s sister said Nana had complained of waist and leg pains during the week. However, the complainant, Eric Baffuor Nyarko, denied that the accused person was sick stressing that he had been feigning sickness all the time. According to Nyarko, there was an occasion that another judge had detained the carrier of similar excuse duty and some few minutes later, Abeka appeared in court. The courts, after taking record of the excuse duty, ordered the police to investigate whether or not the excuse duty of Abeka was emanating from the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. According to the trial judge, in other jurisdictions, this practice could not be taken lightly.