Obuasi SHS Scandal: 19 Girls, a Headmaster and a System That Failed to Protect Them

When 19 female students reportedly allege sexual abuse, when their complaints reach teachers and education officials, and when questions about political influence begin to surface, Ghana must confront a painful possibility: the systems meant to protect children may have failed them long before the public started paying attention. At Obuasi Senior High Technical School in the Ashanti Region, the allegations involving headmaster Zakaria Abdulai have become a national scandal. In October 2026, investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni’s JoyNews documentary, Inside the Dreaded Headmaster’s Bungalow, brought accounts of alleged sexual abuse, rape, threats and institutional inaction into the public domain. The number of female students who have reportedly come forward has risen to 19. Abdulai has denied the allegations, and they must be investigated fairly.

But this story is not only about the man accused. It is also about the complaints that reportedly preceded the investigation, the people who received them, the questions surrounding political interventions, and the systems that must answer for how children were protected, or left vulnerable. When a child reports abuse, the responsibility to act does not belong to the child alone.

A Student's Account of Rape and a Payment for Silence

In the JoyNews documentary, one student recounted an alleged rape by Abdulai at his bungalow on the school premises. She said he had called her there under the pretext of sending her on an errand. According to her account, he held her hand, used it to touch his genitals, expressed a desire to have sex with her and forced her after she refused. She said he gave her GH¢100 afterwards and warned her not to tell anyone.

Consider what that account describes: a student allegedly violated by the person who runs her school, then sent away with money and an instruction to remain silent. The alleged assault is horrifying. So is the power imbalance at its centre. A headmaster occupies a position of authority over students’ education, discipline and school experience. Students should be able to trust that authority to protect them, not fear that it could be used against them.

The student said she tried to report what happened. She approached her house prefect, who informed a teacher. Instead of receiving the immediate protection and support she needed, she described being passed between teachers. One allegedly told her to forgive the headmaster. Another reportedly laughed and said he had confronted Abdulai, who admitted to the conduct.

Forgiveness is not a safeguarding procedure. An apology is not an investigation. And a teacher’s private conversation with a person accused of sexual abuse is not a substitute for reporting the allegation to the appropriate authorities. A student who reports an alleged rape should not have to convince one adult after another that her safety matters. She should not be made to feel that protecting the institution’s reputation is more urgent than protecting her.

Children Left to Pursue Justice on Their Own

According to the student’s account, her friends helped her approach other teachers and pursue the complaint. They sought evidence, including the money she said she had received and clothing she said was connected to the alleged assault. An official from the Bureau of National Investigations reportedly collected evidence, but the student said the school did not report the matter to the police. Her father later took her to report the incident. She also described being asked to attend a meeting involving the headmaster, the very person accused in her account. She said the process ultimately led nowhere.

These details require proper investigation, but the questions they raise are urgent. Why did a student and her friends have to keep searching for adults who would take the allegation seriously? Why was the child’s father left trying to navigate a process that should have been clear and protective from the beginning? And why was a meeting involving the person accused being contemplated when the immediate priorities should have been the student’s safety, the preservation of evidence and a formal investigation?

Another student described a separate alleged encounter in which Abdulai invited girls to his residence to help with tasks. She said she was left alone with him, that he exposed himself and coerced her into sexual contact, and that he threatened to kill her if she disclosed what had happened. She said she eventually confided in a teacher, but no effective action followed. These are separate accounts, and each must be examined on its own evidence. But together, they raise a question that cannot be brushed aside: what happens to a child when the person she accuses holds authority over her, and the adults she approaches allegedly fail to protect her?

We tell children to speak up. We teach them to report abuse. We encourage them to trust teachers and school authorities. But those instructions become cruelly hollow when a child follows them and is left to keep asking for help.

Complaints That Reached Officials Months Before the Documentary

One of the most troubling aspects of the JoyNews investigation is its account of complaints that reportedly reached school management and education authorities months before the Education Minister ordered Abdulai’s suspension. According to JoyNews’ reporting on the earlier complaints, the school’s Girl Child Coordinator and safeguarding teacher petitioned management in February 2026, calling for an immediate, impartial and confidential investigation into growing concerns about alleged sexual assault.

In March, Obuasi West Municipal Director of Education George Alfred Koomson reportedly received complaints from five girls. Three submitted written complaints, according to the investigation. Koomson told the journalist that he became seriously ill shortly afterwards and that the allegations reported to his office were not investigated before another alleged rape on July 25. Parents had also reportedly petitioned authorities, while the school’s old students’ association submitted a petition in July seeking an investigation.

These accounts must be examined carefully, including what each official received, the action required of them and the reasons for any delay. But the chronology is deeply troubling. Concerns were reportedly being raised through multiple channels before the documentary forced the issue into national view. How many complaints should it take before an institution acts? How many adults must hear that a child may be unsafe before the machinery meant to protect her begins to move?

A safeguarding policy is worthless if it exists only on paper. A designated safeguarding teacher cannot be left carrying the responsibility alone. A complaint cannot be allowed to disappear into a chain of referrals, meetings and assurances while the child who made it continues attending school. If officials failed to act on complaints they were responsible for handling, that failure must have consequences.

Political Influence and the Question of Whose Interests Come First

The JoyNews investigation also raised serious questions about the involvement of influential people in earlier reports concerning Abdulai. Obuasi Municipal Chief Executive Faustilove Appiah Kannin said she had received a report about alleged sexual abuse after assuming office. Kumasi Mayor Richard Ofori-Agyemang Boadi, popularly known as Zuba, acknowledged hearing allegations and said he had cautioned Abdulai and advised on measures to safeguard female students. The mayor said his involvement was intended to address the concerns and protect the girls, rather than shield the headmaster. That explanation must be considered alongside the wider question: when a public official receives information that students may be at risk, what action is required beyond a warning?

The investigation also reported that a meeting involving Abdulai and housemistress Adwoa Yeboah took place. Yeboah acknowledged receiving GH¢1,000 in connection with the meeting but denied that the money was a bribe intended to protect the headmaster. The circumstances and purpose of the payment require scrutiny rather than assumption.

Frederick Addai, a former National Democratic Congress (NDC) constituency organiser in Obuasi East, told JoyNews that Abdulai had admitted to him that he had sexually assaulted a student. Addai said he advised him to stop having sexual relations with students. He also alleged that party figures had intervened in earlier cases and that some parents were pressured to withdraw complaints. David Adama, an NDC executive whom Addai accused of mobilising party figures to intervene, denied that allegation.

These are serious claims. They must not be presented as proven findings before a proper investigation establishes what happened. But neither should they be dismissed because they involve politically connected people. The public deserves to know whether any official or influential figure attempted to discourage complaints, obstruct an investigation or protect an individual from accountability. Anyone implicated must have the opportunity to respond, and any wrongdoing established must be addressed through lawful processes. No political relationship should make an allegation involving a child’s safety less urgent. No man’s reputation should matter more than a student’s right to protection.

The August Discovery, the Unrest and the Committee's Findings

On August 4, 2026, students at Obuasi Senior High Technical School discovered what appeared to be the remains of a baby buried on school grounds. The discovery was followed by allegations linking Abdulai to the burial, student unrest, an assault on the headmaster and damage to school and personal property. Six students were reportedly arrested. The incident brought the school into the public spotlight, but it is important to distinguish the events of August from the separate sexual-abuse allegations now under investigation.

A committee established to investigate the August disturbances reported on October 20 that it found no direct evidence that Abdulai had buried the remains or that his vehicle had been at the burial site. Its findings said no student or teacher who appeared before it had witnessed him burying the remains. The committee also said the sexual harassment allegations examined during that earlier inquiry were not substantiated by the evidence presented by the four students who attended, out of 16 invited.

Those findings must be reported honestly. The allegation that Abdulai buried the remains was not substantiated by direct evidence, and the committee’s conclusions about the earlier complaints cannot simply be ignored. However, the August inquiry is separate from the fresh investigation prompted by the October JoyNews documentary. The fact that one inquiry did not substantiate the allegations it examined does not establish the truth or falsity of every account subsequently reported. Each allegation requires a fair assessment of its own evidence.

The student unrest also cannot be reduced to a justification for violence. Beating a person and vandalising property are not substitutes for justice. The students’ actions must be assessed through appropriate processes, just as the allegations that prompted wider concern must be investigated. But we should ask why the school had reached such a volatile point. What had students heard, witnessed or come to believe about the safety of their school? What concerns had been raised, and how had those concerns been handled? A riot cannot establish guilt. Nor should the noise surrounding a riot distract from legitimate questions about safeguarding, complaints and institutional responsibility.

A Previous Scandal That Should Have Served as a Warning

The concerns at Obuasi SHS have also revived questions about an earlier case at the same school. In 2018, Manasseh Azure Awuni investigated allegations of sexual misconduct involving a senior housemaster, who was subsequently dismissed. Eight years later, a new investigation has brought fresh allegations and renewed questions about whether lessons were learned and adequate safeguards put in place.

The recurrence of serious concerns at the same institution should prompt more than expressions of shock. Authorities must examine whether safeguarding procedures were strengthened after the earlier case, whether staff knew how to report suspected abuse, whether complaints were properly documented and whether students had safe, confidential routes to seek help. A school cannot rely on the hope that misconduct will be reported publicly before action is taken. It needs systems that work when the first complaint arrives, not after the nineteenth account, a documentary or a national controversy.

What Has Happened Since the Allegations Became Public

Following the JoyNews investigation, Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to suspend Abdulai and requested a criminal investigation by the Ghana Police Service. On October 20, police said they had completed their investigation into one rape complaint filed by a student on August 4 and forwarded the case docket to the Attorney-General for study and advice. Police also said other allegations could be investigated if additional complainants formally reported them or relevant information was submitted.

On October 21, Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak told the Ghana News Agency that Abdulai had been arrested and that the Criminal Investigations Department had taken over the case for further investigation. The minister also said a court’s permission was needed for DNA testing of a semen sample allegedly found on one student’s clothing.

These developments matter. But the distinction between one completed police investigation and the 19 reported allegations must not be lost. The process cannot leave the other girls’ accounts unexamined simply because one complaint has progressed further through the system. The authorities must establish what happened in each case, assess the available evidence, protect the students involved and explain how complaints were handled before the matter became a national scandal. Due process is essential. So is urgency. Neither should be used to excuse the absence of the other.

The Investigation Must Examine More Than One Man

It is possible to insist on a fair investigation of the allegations against Abdulai and, at the same time, demand accountability from the institutions that received complaints. These are not competing positions. They are both necessary.

The Ghana Education Service, the Ministry of Education, the police and the relevant child-protection authorities must ensure that every reported allegation is properly assessed. Students must have access to medical care, psychosocial support, legal assistance and protection from retaliation. Their identities and privacy must be safeguarded throughout the process.

Every official who received a complaint must be asked what they knew, when they knew it, what steps they took and whether those steps met their responsibilities. Any allegations of pressure on parents, interference by political figures or attempts to suppress reports must be investigated independently. Where misconduct or obstruction is established, lawful disciplinary or criminal consequences must follow.

Schools also need reporting systems that do not depend on a student repeatedly approaching adults who may have personal or professional ties to the person she is accusing. Complaints involving senior staff should trigger clear escalation procedures beyond the school’s immediate management. Students must know where to turn, and they must be able to do so without fear that speaking up will cost them their safety, education or dignity. These are not unreasonable demands. They are the minimum responsibilities of institutions entrusted with children.

Ghana Cannot Keep Asking Girls to Be Brave While Adults Avoid Responsibility

The Obuasi SHS case is a test of whether safeguarding means anything beyond official statements. It is a test of whether complaints are treated as urgent warnings or inconvenient disruptions. It is a test of whether public institutions can investigate allegations involving powerful or politically connected people without allowing personal relationships to interfere. And it is a test of whether the girls at the centre of this story will be treated as people whose safety and dignity matter, rather than as names in a scandal that will eventually fade from the news cycle.

The 19 reported accounts demand careful investigation. The students who have spoken must not be presumed to be lying, nor should any allegation be treated as a proven fact before the evidence has been examined. Fairness requires both. What it cannot require is silence, delay or indifference.

We cannot tell girls to speak up and then leave them to fight their way through a system that is supposed to protect them. We cannot praise safeguarding in policy documents while failing to investigate complaints. We cannot allow a public controversy to become the only thing capable of forcing institutions to answer questions that should have been addressed months earlier.

Investigate every allegation. Examine every reported failure. Protect the students. Hold anyone found responsible accountable. The girls should never have had to carry this burden alone. And the adults entrusted with their safety must not be allowed to walk away from the questions that remain.