Kumasi, June 19, GNA - Twenty-year-old Francis De-graft Johnson, a self-styled evangelist who posed as a medical officer, will spend the next six years in prison.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of illegally possessing health equipment and posing as a medical doctor when he appeared before a Kumasi circuit court that slapped the sentence on him. Police Chief Inspector Wilfred Salia told the court that the convict lived in Takoradi and had for the past six months been putting up at Trede in the Bosomtwe-Atwima-Kwanwoma District with a friend he met through evangelism.

Johnson convinced his host that he was a medical officer at the Tarkwa Government Hospital and told Madam Cecilia Bobie in-charge of a private maternity home in the town that he was on leave and therefore wanted a "locum."

Chief Inspector Salia said the convict persistently refused to see patients at the maternity home and gave excuses but was one day sent to the Jachie-Pramso Hospital to pick a bank cheque for the home. Johnson met the Deputy Director of Clinical Services of the hospital who questioned him during which he came to his wits end and gave himself up.

A search on him later revealed a stethoscope, a fake identity card and a duty roster form of the Ghana Health Service (GHS). The court ordered that all the items except the stethoscope be burnt in the presence of the police and the stethoscope be handed over to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.