FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ACCRA, GHANA — 20TH OCTOBER 2026

FOSDA CONDEMNS OBUASI SENIOR HIGH TECHNICAL SCHOOL SCANDAL; DEMANDS IMMEDIATE JUDICIAL ACTION AND SAFEGUARDING REFORMS

The Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) expresses its deep consternation and absolute condemnation regarding the horrific sexual assault, rape, and abuse scandal at the Obuasi Senior High Technical School (Obuasi SHTS) involving the Headmaster, Mr. Zakaria Abdulai.

Despite damning investigative revelations by JoyNews as exposed by journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni through his investigative documentary “Inside the Dreaded Headmaster’s Bungalow, which include testimonies from up to 19 female student victims and admissions of guilt made by the interdicted headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, FOSDA is alarmed that the suspect remains a free man and is alarmed by how the case has been handled and especially by institutional actors as follows:

  1. The Silent Observers: The School Management Board and the teachers who kept mute despite knowing about the ongoing exploitation until students themselves took matters into their own hands and rioted against the interdicted headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, which occurred on August 5, 2026.
  2. The Local Authorities (The Political & Security Failure): The Obuasi Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) and the Obuasi Divisional Police Command, who failed to act on early intelligence before the campus erupted into violent riots.
  3. The Regulatory Bodies (The Administrative Failure): The Ghana Education Service (GES)—specifically the Obuasi Municipal Education Directorate—which failed to act on written petitions and treated a criminal felony as an internal administrative matter.

This failure to execute a swift physical arrest undermines the state’s duty to protect vulnerable children and severely compromises human security within Ghana’s educational institutions.

 

A Failure of Institutional Safeguarding and State Accountability

FOSDA views the current liberty enjoyed by the suspect as a dangerous precedent that signals institutional foot-dragging. While we acknowledge the administrative interdiction executed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the forwarding of the case file to the Attorney-General’s office, administrative suspension is not a substitute for criminal justice!

Rape and the defilement of students are severe felonies. The continued freedom of the suspect not only risks the intimidation of traumatized student witnesses but also deepens public distrust in law enforcement’s commitment to gender-based violence cases.

Furthermore, we are deeply concerned by reports that local political machinations are being prioritized over criminal accountability, allowing a suspect of serial sexual felony to continue participating in partisan political contests.

Our Immediate Demands:

FOSDA calls on all relevant state apparatuses to treat this matter with the highest level of urgency and national priority:

  1. Immediate Arrest by the Police CID: We demand that the Police Criminal Investigation Department immediately arrest and detain Zakaria Abdulai. A taped admission of misconduct provides more than enough reasonable suspicion to execute an arrest and bring the suspect before a court within the constitutional 48-hour window.
  2. Expedited Action from the Attorney-General: We call on the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice to expedite the review of the police docket and issue definitive legal advice to ensure swift, unbailable felony arraignment before a court of competent jurisdiction.
  3. Whistleblower Protection for Victims and Teachers: The state, through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the GES, must provide immediate psychological support and strict witness protection for the brave students, teachers, and girl-child advocates who came forward. There must be zero tolerance for institutional retaliation against those who blew the whistle.
  4. Independent Audit of School Grievance Mechanisms: The revelation that initial petitions from teachers regarding the headmaster’s conduct were actively suppressed or ignored points to a systemic breakdown. GES must immediately institute an independent audit of how sexual misconduct complaints are handled across all second-cycle institutions in Ghana. There must be an entirely independent, third-party whistleblower framework where students and girl-child advocates can report abuse directly to legal authorities, completely bypassing school management and local political actors who seek to protect their own reputations.

The state must move beyond reactive administrative suspensions to take decisive action against sexual violence, protect Ghanaian girls, and uphold its Women, Peace and Security commitments. FOSDA therefore demands:

  1. Criminalize Institutional Cover-Ups: Parliament must enact legislation to penalize the concealment or internal settlement of sexual abuse complaints by school authorities, ensuring that officials who deliberately suppress such reports face appropriate legal consequences.
  1. Enforce Inter-Agency Rapid Response: The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, must establish protocols for promptly referring adolescent pregnancies involving girls below the legal age of consent to be taken as a criminal investigation handled by DOVVSU for appropriate assessment and investigation of suspected sexual abuse.

The protection of the rights of women and girls, preventing them from sexual gender-based violence is a Women, Peace and Security agenda.

The fundamental tenets of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda dictate that national stability is impossible without the physical safety and institutional protection of women and girls. Yet, in Ghana, some systems designed to uphold this agenda are failing catastrophically. The prevailing national reality is a toxic confluence of pedophilia, an entrenched rape culture, normalized domestic violence, and systemic sexual assault. What occurred at Obuasi Senior High Technical School is not a standalone failure of a single predatory headmaster. It is a symptom of a deeply sick, pervasive, and structural crisis where young girls are treated as prey within the very institutions meant to guarantee their future.

The sheer scale of this crisis is laid bare by undeniable national data. Official statistics from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), revealed a horrific reality: Ghana recorded a staggering 53,415 adolescent pregnancies between January and July 2026 alone. When the age demographics of these statistics are analyzed, they overwhelmingly encompass girls within primary, junior high, and senior high school age ranges.

These are not numbers representing consenting adults; these are children in uniforms. These figures point directly to a nationwide epidemic of statutory rape and defilement. Many of these schoolgirls are being systematically impregnated by the very authority figures entrusted with their care—predatory teachers, exploitative headmasters, and older men in positions of trust who use academic blackmail, financial coercion, and institutional power to silence them. The Obuasi SHTS scandal is simply the visible tip of a massive, state-wide iceberg of institutionalized sexual violence.

The investigative interviews surrounding this specific case expose a deeply sickening societal normalization of felony-level abuse. When a respondent dismisses serial sexual exploitation by stating that the headmaster has a “weakness for women,” they actively reduce systemic predation to a minor personality flaw. These are not consenting women; these are young girls who were supposed to be protected!

This normalization is further codified by a “normalized customary practice” where female students are sent to work inside the private homes of male teachers even as a form of punishment. This dangerous practice routinely isolates vulnerable children, hands absolute power to potential abusers, and creates a highly compromised environment that facilitates grooming and assault.

Most egregious of all is the sheer audacity of the interdicted headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, who reportedly admitted to his offence of taking advantage of the girls and offered a casual apology, stating he was “sorry” and “would not do it again.”

This casual dismissal reveals the mindset of a predator who believes that raping and destroying the lives of young girls is a mere administrative infraction that can be erased with a simple apology. This language and behaviour are damning evidence of an entrenched culture that normalizes egregious sexual violence, treating it as a trivial, internal school matter rather than the severe criminal felony it is.

Schools must be sanctuaries of learning, safety, and empowerment—not hunting grounds for predatory leadership. The state must act decisively to show that no political office, administrative status, or financial influence can buy immunity from the law. FOSDA will continue to monitor this case closely to ensure that justice is not delayed, denied, or diluted.

 

Media Contact:
Theodora Williams-Anti

Executive Director
theodora@fosda.org
0274834235