Interior Minister Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka has assured the public that the police investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct involving the headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Zakaria Abdulai, will be pursued fully and in accordance with the law.
Appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Muntaka said the matter was before the police and that efforts were underway to ensure it was thoroughly investigated.
He acknowledged that Ghana’s legal processes could be slow, explaining that the courts were on vacation when the matter came to the authorities’ attention. However, he maintained that the police were working on the case and assured the public that it would not be swept under the carpet.
“Sitting here, knowing the Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department, COP Lydia, I can vouch with my life that she will not compromise anything on this,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, PAC Chairperson Abena Osei-Asare called for a legal framework that would remove cases of alleged sexual misconduct in schools from the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) internal disciplinary process and subject them to criminal investigation.
She argued that the GES was not equipped to handle cases involving alleged criminal conduct and expressed concern that teachers accused of sexual misconduct could continue receiving salaries even after internal investigations had established wrongdoing.
Mrs Osei-Asare also questioned the handling of the allegations involving the Obuasi SHTS headmaster, noting that more than three months had reportedly passed since a committee was formed to investigate the matter.
She challenged the timing of the official report to the Interior Minister, saying the case highlighted concerns about the GES’s capacity to deal with such allegations.
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