Crime & Punishment of Friday, 15 May 2015

Source: Daily Guide

Nifa SHS headmaster Sacked

Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that Alex Acquah, headmaster of Nifa Senior High School in the Akropong North Municipality of the Eastern Region, has been sacked by the Ghana Education Service (GES) over alleged sexual assault.

This follows a suit by the assistant headmistress for attempted rape.

Ms Anna Duodo, the assistant headmistress, took the matter to the Akropong circuit court where the headmaster was charged for sexual assault and attempting to rape his assistant in office in May last year.

Anna Duodo also challenged her transfer from the school by the Regional Education Director following a complaint of rape, after she had filed the suit. The action, she claimed, was taken after several petitions to the Educational Directorate and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT).

Excerpts of the petition, sighted by DAILY GUIDE read: “As I entered his office, he seized hold of me, dragged me to a chair, tripped me up into it and sat astride me. I was in a skirt and a buttoned top, he debuttoned the top, took hold of my breasts and fondled them.

“Because there was no one around, all my distress cum protest yells came to naught.

“At this point, he had fully worked himself into a frenzy; he pulled me from the chair and tried to stretch me on a table while he stripped himself naked. He relaxed his grip on me and when he was almost stark naked he let go completely of me.

“Perhaps he thought I had yielded or had been prostrated by the struggle. Then I made an escape with the little strength in me before he fully got out of his boxer pant.”

Meanwhile, lawyers of GNAT withdrew the case for out-of-court settlement with Acquah on 6 May, 2015.

The court further ordered the GES up to May 20, 2015 to come back and brief it on the outcome of the settlement.