Let Our Sister Go Home To Her Children - Hawa Koomson Demands Bail For Detained Nurse

Former Minister and NPP National Women’s Organiser aspirant, Hon. Hawa Koomson, has appealed for the release of 40-year-old nurse, Madam Salomey Baffoe.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday, September 17, Madam Koomson said the nurse and mother of three was picked up from her home in Hansua, Techiman, close to midnight on Sunday, September 13.

According to her, for two days her family searched for her while police and regional National Security officials denied knowledge of her whereabouts, only for it to emerge that the state was holding her.

She said Madam Baffoe was arraigned before the Adenta Circuit Court on Wednesday and remanded, long after the 48-hour constitutional limit, adding that her lawyer says she is accused of conspiring with the anonymous "Ghana Jollof" to overthrow government, yet the charge sheet had not been served on her defence before the hearing.

"A woman who spends her days caring for the sick at Abrafi Hospital was taken from her home at night and kept away from everyone who loves her. Her three children were left behind in Techiman, waiting for a mother who did not come home. No child in Ghana should go to bed wondering where their mother is," the statement said.

Madam Koomson stressed that she was not asking that anyone be placed above the law, but that suspicion should not be treated as evidence.

She noted that earlier this month it was Efya Royal and now it is Salomey, saying Ghanaian women deserve to know who will be next.

She therefore appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to direct the Minister for National Security, the National Security Coordinator, the Director-General of the National Investigations Bureau and the Inspector-General of Police to:

1. Grant Salomey bail so she can go home to her children while investigations continue.

2. Explain why she was held beyond the 48 hours permitted by the Constitution.

3. Give her family and lawyers full and regular access to her.

4. End night-time arrests of women and the circulation of their photographs on mere suspicion.

She thanked the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) for standing by its member and expressed solidarity with the husband, mother and children of the detained nurse.