The Ministry of Education says it was unaware of allegations of sexual abuse involving the headmaster of Obuasi SHTS until an investigative documentary by journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni brought the matter to its attention.
Deputy Education Minister Dr Clement Apaak said this in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, saying the ministry had not received information about the alleged abuse before the documentary was released.
“We had heard nothing about the sexual abuse until the documentary came out,” he said.
Dr Apaak said Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu was shown excerpts of the documentary before its broadcast, after which the school’s headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, was immediately interdicted.
He revealed, however, that reports of the alleged abuse had previously been made to the Obuasi and Ashanti Regional Directors of Education, raising questions about why the information did not reach the ministry’s headquarters in Accra.
“We became aware that reports were made to them, but for some reason the information didn’t get to us in Accra. So we need to examine the administrative lapses as to why they knew this, and we did not become aware,” he said.
Apaak confirmed that the ministry had begun its own administrative investigations to establish what went wrong and determine why the reports were not escalated.
He added that the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection was working to locate the girls involved so they could receive the necessary support.
“The Gender Minister is trying to reach out and locate the girls so that we see how best we can support them,” he said.
The deputy minister stressed that no one was above the law and that the allegations against the headmaster must be taken seriously.
Abdulai has been accused of sexually abusing about 19 female students. He has been interdicted by the Ghana Education Service and arrested by police as investigations continue.
