Zakaria Abdulai
Pressure continues to pile on the Headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Zakaria Abdulai, with the Member of Parliament (MP) for Offinso North, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah, calling for his suspension from the board of the National Film Authority (NFA), pending investigations into allegations of sexual abuse involving female students.
Dr. Asamoah, a member of Parliament’s Education Committee, said the gravity of the allegations required decisive action by public institutions to protect students while investigations continued.
In a statement issued yesterday, he urged the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts to suspend Mr. Abdulai from the NFA Board, arguing that transferring an official facing such allegations to another school would not adequately protect students.
The call comes amid reports that the number of female students who have come forward with allegations against the headmaster has risen to 19.
Dr. Asamoah said complaints were reportedly made as far back as March 2026, while the Ministry of Education acted on October 13, after a journalist’s documentary on the matter went viral.
He questioned why protective action had not been taken earlier and whether the headmaster would have been reposted to another school, as reportedly recommended by a Ghana Education Service (GES) regional committee, if the matter had not attracted widespread public attention.
He also called for an independent review of how the school, district and regional education authorities handled the earlier complaints, with sanctions for any officials found to have ignored or covered up the matter.
The MP further urged the government to establish whether anyone within the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service or political circles had intervened to shield the headmaster from accountability.
He said allegations that teachers who stood by the students had been asked to leave the school, if established, would send a worrying message to educators who sought to protect children.
Dr. Asamoah also called for the immediate reopening of Obuasi SHTS, saying first-year students had been stranded for more than a month, while Form Two students had missed their promotional examinations.
He urged the Ghana Education Service to develop a catch-up plan for affected students and reverse sanctions imposed on students in connection with the disturbances that occurred at the school in August.
He maintained that the entire school community should not be made to suffer for the alleged misconduct of one individual.
On the investigations, the MP called on the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), working with the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), to conclude its work promptly while protecting the identities of the complainants.
He also demanded counselling and psychosocial support for affected students, alongside guarantees that students and teachers who had spoken out would not face retaliation.
Dr. Asamoah called for stronger safeguarding measures in Senior High Schools nationwide, including confidential reporting channels, mandatory reporting of abuse allegations, protection for whistleblowers and trained safeguarding leads, particularly in boarding schools.
He said he would ask Parliament’s Education Committee to seek a full briefing from the Ghana Education Service on the case and safeguarding arrangements in schools.
The MP, however, stressed that the allegations against Mr. Abdulai remained allegations and that the headmaster was entitled to the presumption of innocence and due process.
He urged the media and the public to respect the privacy of the students and allow investigations to proceed without prejudice.
Police Deny Arrest
Meanwhile, the Ashanti South Police Command has denied reports that the headmaster has been arrested over allegations of sexual misconduct.
The Command said the headmaster was at home and, to the best of its knowledge, had not been arrested in connection with the allegations.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Llyod Baidoo, the Regional Court Officer and Public Relations Officer of the Ashanti South Police Command, said there was no record of the headmaster’s arrest over the alleged misconduct.
He explained that the police had made an arrest following a rape complaint lodged by a girl at Obuasi on August 4, 2026, but stressed that the arrest did not concern the headmaster.
“We effected an arrest when a girl made a report at Obuasi on the 4th of August, 2026, that a certain man had raped her,” ASP Baidoo said.
By Ernest Kofi Adu