The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has denied reports suggesting that a Chinese prison inmate escaped while undergoing treatment at the facility.
The inmate was at the Nsawam Prison and was serving a one-year jail term.
He allegedly feigned sickness to the extent that he needed to be taken to the hospital outside the prison walls but he escaped from the hands of the prison officers who escorted him.
The head of communications, Mustapha Salifu has admitted the suspect, Wang Xiao was at the facility for treatement.
However, Mr Salifu explained he was not in handcuffs or a prison uniform even though he had officers accompany him.
“He came to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in the company of two prison guards because of toothache. Once he got there, we observed that this patient was not handcuffed.
“He was asked to pay GHC167 for registration because he was non-Ghanaian. After that, he proceeded to the consulting room, where he was seen and assessed. He was then asked to go for an X-ray. While he was going for the X-Ray he was still not in handcuffs,” he narrated to Accra-based TV3.
According to him, Mr Wang left the hospital and promised to return because he didn’t have enough money on him to cover the expenses.
Unfortunately, he never returned until news about his escape broke out.
“After giving them the brief of the procedure, we told them it would cost GHC616. The prisoner said he did not have that much on him so he was rescheduled to report back at the hospital on Friday, February 9, but has since not returned to the hospital.
“He, however, left in the company of the prison officers who escorted him and so as far as we’re concerned, the Prison Officers left Korle Bu with the patient and headed back to Nsawam,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Prisons Service has said the incident is under investigations with leads obtained to help re-arrest the 39-year-old.