The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has described the missing baby case at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) as serious and said the House will monitor developments as they unfold.
He said he would allow as many members as possible to make comments on the matter at the appropriate time and urged the leadership of the House to �flag� the issue for discussion later.
The Speaker made the comment after the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak (NDC), had made a statement on the floor of the House on the missing baby saga.
About 3 a.m. on Wednesday, February 5, 2014, Suwaiba Abdul Mumin, a resident of Aboabo in Kumasi, was delivered of a baby boy at the Labour Ward at KATH.
The baby was taken to a place she could not confirm and after a few minutes she was told the baby had passed on.
When she requested to see the body of her baby, she was told by the midwives that the body could not be found, a development which led some residents of Aboabo to besiege the hospital, threatening mayhem.
The Minister of Health later intervened and issued a number of directives.
Muntaka�s statement
Alhaji Muntaka, in his statement, said there was the need for much deeper investigation to ascertain whether others had suffered the same fate as Suwaiba and if there was the need to institute measures to ensure that such incidents would not recur.
He said it was important that all interested parties remained calm and supported the state agencies investigating the matter to enable them to expedite action and pursue the issue to its logical conclusion.
The Asawase MP appealed to all Ghanaians to be vigilant and report any suspicious person who was found with a baby to the police for further action.
While expressing gratitude to the Ashanti Regional Minister and his team, as well as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Muntaka called for a speedy resolution of the matter, saying, �Time is of great essence in this case.�
Prempeh and Alhassan
The MP for Manhyia, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NPP), said the Suwaiba case should not be addressed in isolation, adding that there was the need to ascertain if the loss of the baby was an isolated matter.
He said there was also the need to critically investigate why hospitals in Ghana were failing.
He condemned the youth of Aboabo for attacking the hospital and said in such cases, the law should be allowed to take its course.
The MP for Mion, Dr Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan (NDC), said information available to him pointed to the fact that out of six babies delivered on that day, five died.
A nation determined to address the problems of child mortality, he said, should not record such deaths.
He said the KATH case should not degenerate into a conflict between doctors and patients.
Dr Alhassan wondered why feminists and human rights activists who had criticised the management of the Accra Mall for making some alleged female thieves crawl on their knees were silent on such an important issue.
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