MORE than 500 residents, mostly women of Kwadaso Estate and Patasi in Kumasi, who were tricked into buying a drug alleged to have been manufactured by the Minister of Health, Dr Richard Anane, and his foreign partners in Switzerland, besieged the Patasi Police Station on Saturday, to retrieve their money from the con men who had then been arrested.

The suspects, Kwame Sarpong, 30; Kwame Owusu, 40; Kwabena Owusu, 25, and Kwa

Kwabena Owusu, 25, and Kwadwo Agyapong, 24, had told the unsuspecting residents that the Minister of Health who is also the Member of Parliament for the area, had asked them to sell the drugs at a “reduced price of ?5,000 each” to only residents in his constituency. They claim the drug could treat many ailments.

To make the residents believe them the more, the salesmen gave those who bought the drugs pieces of papers they were to use the following week for free injection against Cerebro-Spinal-Meningitis (CSM), an exercise which they said was also being sponsored by the Minister of Health.

A spokesman of the victims, Ms Theresa Dartey, told the Graphic at the police station that they were awakened early Saturday morning by loud speakers used by the men, urging the residents to come out in their numbers and buy the “Armstrong Herbal Blood Tonic” alleged to have been manufactured by the Minister of Health, Dr Anane.

She said the four men told those who went to find out what they had for sale that the Minister, in collaboration with his Switzerland partners, had manufactured the herbal medicine to reduce the spread of many diseases, including CSM.

Ms Dartey, who bought seven bottles of the drug, said the con men also convinced them that Dr Anane had instructed them to offer free injection against CSM and that only those who purchased the herbal medicine would be injected the following week.

She said the men further alleged that Dr Anane and his partners had established a herbal school at Toase in the Atwima District, to train the youth who are unemployed, so that they could open their own clinics.

She said the men, therefore, urged them to seek admission for their wards at the herbal school, but admission was restricted to those who would purchase the drug or their wards.

Ms Dartey said to enable most of them to have free injection against CSM, which the men alleged was spreading fast to the Ashanti Region and other parts of the country, they bought many bottles of the Armstrong Herbal Blood Tonic.

What seemed to be a field day for the con men soon turned bad, as reporters from Kapital Radio suddenly appeared at the place and challenged them, and the salesmen could not stand up to the challenge.

It was at this point that the residents realised that they had been duped.

She said the journalists later reported the men to the police and they were arrested.

News of their arrest in no time got to Kwadaso Estate and those who fell victim to the con men the previous week also rushed to the police station for a refund.

Sensing danger, the police whisked the suspects to the Central Police Station for further investigations.