Elijah Yeboah
A teacher who has allegedly raped one of his students at the Sunyani High School in the Brong-Ahafo Region has reportedly deserted the school, as the police make frantic efforts to get him to face the law.
Elijah Yeboah, Physical Education (PE) tutor, under the guise of punishing the student for not reporting for exercises in her PE dress, ordered the victim and three other girls to scrub the floor in his bungalow as their punishment.
DAILY GUIDE’s investigation revealed that after the students had gone through the punishment and were about to leave, Mr Yeboah told one of them (name withheld) that she had not finished her part of the punishment and so should come back another day to complete it. This reportedly happened on 4th July, 2016.
On 10th July, 2016, the tutor asked her to go and complete the punishment and in the course of the work, he allegedly held her hand and drew her to his sofa and forcibly had sex with her.
According to sources, on July 12, the girl reported the case to her house mistress who in turn reported it to the senior house master and subsequently the headmistress.
The headmistress also reported the matter to the municipal director of education for advice.
After initial investigation, the municipal directorate advised the school authorities to report the case to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service for his arrest.
However, because the act took place during terminal examination period, DOVVSU advised that he should be picked up after the examination so that it would not affect the girl psychologically.
But the tutor was said to have gotten wind of the move and absconded even before the student could finish the examination.
Deputy Regional Coordinator of DOVVSU, ASP Satina Aboagye told DAILY GUIDE that the police were still looking for him.
The headmistress and her deputies were not available for comment after frantic efforts to get their side of the story.
But the Sunyani Municipal Education Director, Mary Gyimah, confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE and said whilst the police were handling the criminal aspect of the case, she had also advised the headmistress to carry out the administrative punishment by embargoing the tutor’s salary because he left school without permission.
All efforts to get the teacher through his mobile phone proved futile as it had been switched off and his wife too could not tell her husband’s whereabouts.
From Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani