Fake nurse, 33, sentenced to 22-month imprisonment

A dismissed trainee nurse, Francis Awine Anaafo, 33, has been sentenced to 22 months imprisonment for using forged documents to undergo national service at the Goaso Municipal Hospital in the Ahafo Region.

The Madina District Magistrate Court ‘1’, presided over by Mrs Maame Efua Tordimah, sentenced Anaafo on June 28, 2019 for defrauding by false pretence and impersonation.

Facts

The facts of the case as presented by prosecutors were that on February 21, 2019, the Medical Superintendent at the hospital, wrote to the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana that Francis Anaafo, who was using the name Simon Yaw Woli, was underperforming, and that he should be investigated.

Upon receipt of the letter, Anaafo was invited to the Council’s head office in Accra where he was made to present his certificate of registration, results slip and the national service logbook.

After screening the documents, the council detected that Anaafo fraudulently used the name of Mr Simon Yaw Woli, who is a qualified nursing practitioner, to obtain an extract-of-occurrence from the police that his certificate, results slip and logbook were missing.

Anaafo, fraudulently acquired a duplicate copy of Mr Woli’s Registered General Nursing (RGN) certificate with the extract and presented it to the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to register for the 2018 national service.

The NSS later posted Anaafo to the Goaso Municipal Hospital where he commenced his service in September, 2018.

The Intelligence and Disciplinary Department of the Council, in the course of investigations, contacted the professional nurse, Simon Yaw Woli, who had his original RGN certificate and results slip in his possession.

Woli, revealed that he and Anaafo, commenced nursing training at the Nursing and Midwifery Training College in Sekondi in the Western Region in August 2013, however, in 2015, Anaafo was demoted and later sacked from the school for non-performance.

Officials from the Intelligence and Disciplinary Department of the Council, with the assistance of the Airport Police, subsequently arrested Anaafo on March 15, 2019, and arraigned him before court.

Caution

A statement signed by the Registrar of the council, Mr Felix Nyante, warned that such a conduct was punishable by law and that the supervisory body would not condone such behaviours.

“The council shall tighten the noose around practitioners and persons seeking to practise nursing and midwifery in the country on the basis of possessing fake documents,” it said.

The council also appealed to managers of health facilities, training institutions, the media and the general public to report any suspicious and unprofessional conduct of practitioners to the council for the necessary regulatory actions to be taken.