Kandahar Boys, a vigilante group associated with the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), has admitted that they had no right to besiege the Tamale Teaching Hospital, locking up the office of the Chief Executive Officer.
They were however, compelled to carry out their action in order to prevent a planned picketing at the facility by some angry youth of the area.
“We have no right to take that action because the police [and] other officials were supposed to be there to do that job and to protect the facility, ” the group’s secretary, Idris Abdul Hac told Morning Starr host Francis Abban on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
The Kandahar Boys on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 raided the Tamale Teaching Hospital, locking up the office of the facility’s CEO, Prosper Akangbon and some top officials who they accuse of mismanagement.
None of the officials was present when the dreaded group arrived at the health facility, but a written message was left on the door of the CEO warning him to “keep off until further notice.”
The group’s mission was to force these top managers out of office after details emerged that the hospital’s management directed and compelled anesthetics to administer expired anesthesia drugs on patients.
Abdul Hack told Starr News in an earlier interview that they took the decision to prevent another group from picketing the premises as part of measures to force the CEO to stand down.
Regional pressure groups have intensified calls for the top management to step down and be investigated by the Bureau of National Investigations and the Food and Drugs Authority, and therefore decided to begin the mission by picketing at the hospital.
But the Kandahar Boys believe the planned picketing could be chaotic, affect service delivery hence their decision to be proactive.
“The reason for their picketing is to go to the hospital and be there till the CEO steps down so we had understanding that if this is the reason they are going to be there, then let’s not go there with crowd. The CEO is the problem- and then going to the hospital would scare away most doctors and nurses, and most patients won’t get attention and if he (CEO) would be the cause then we have to make the hospital be at peace, everything should be running smoothly; the hospital would now know that we lock the hospital for it to be running”, he said
