Protesting nurses from the Pantang Mental Hospital were forced to flee for their dear flee shots fired a day after they mounted a protest against the hospital management and their conditions of service.
According to reports, alleged “Landguards” fired guns into the Eastern wing of the hospital housing the nurses, in an ongoing land feud in the area.
Unconfirmed reports gathered by Whatsup News indicate that the land guards were possibly associated with a company called JELEEL and that the company is linked to Interior Minister Ambrose Dery, through his brother who is using state-sponsored agents to grab lands in the Pantang area.
On Monday, June 28, the nurses and other staff of the hospital boycotted their duties for fear of another attack by the land guards.
Confirming the incident to 3FM, a Senior Physician Assistant and representative of the Ghana Physician Association at Pantang Hospital and one of the leaders of the Pantang Nurses Association, Nicholas Annor, said: “We are fleeing for our lives. We are fleeing from danger. There have been incidents of gunshots and a series of that at the OPD. Had this hit anybody we would have recorded a death case. We came here to work not to get into this mess. This is a danger to our nurses.”
“Sometimes the guys come on motorbikes. There are nurses who come in the afternoon and when they close and they are going home they come across guys who ask them to surrender their phones and bags. Some have knife wounds and the two nurses training colleges have their rooms bugled,” Annor stated.
Several petitions have so far been sent to the Chief of Staff and the Ministry of Interior but no action has been taken yet.
“We had a meeting at the Presidency, with the Chief of Staff; we had assurances from the Minister of National Security and he assured us something would be done and for one month now, we have not heard from him. Just last Friday we were going to meet the Chief of Staff and they called to tell us the meeting had been cancelled. So the best thing is to flee for our lives,” said Annor.
Meanwhile, the matter has been reported to the Adentan Police for the perpetrators to be arrested but residents say the police are complicit in the illegalities going on as they rather end up providing security for the encroachers.