Crime & Punishment of Wednesday, 19 October 2005

Source: GNA

Two students from Tuobodom jailed for impersonation

Techiman(B/A),Oct.19, GNA - Two students from Tuobodom in the Brong-Ahafo Region have been sentenced to two years imprisonment each in hard labour by a Techiman Circuit Court on their own plea for impersonation.

The accused persons Emmanuel Asiedu 18 and Andrews Dokyi 21 pleaded guilty to impersonation at the on-going November-December West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) SSSCE for private candidates.

Police Chief Inspector Sampson Y. Jebuni told the court presided over by Mr. Godwin A. Kwasikuma that on October 14 this year, Asiedu and Dokyi both former Senior Secondary School (SSS) students registered as private candidates for the November-December WAEC, SSSCE examinations. Police Chief Inspector Jebuni said Dokyi who was alleged to be clever than Asiedu was engaged by Asiedu to write the examination for him.

He said Dokyi's Index Number was 76250451 whilst Asiedu had 76260452 as his Index Number for the examination. The prosecutor said on October 13, Asiedu who was writing Christian Religious Studies paper at the Asuogyaman Secondary Technical School (ASTS) at Aworowa and Dokyi, second accused person entered the examination hall together to write the paper.

Police Chief Inspector Jebuni said during the examination, the invigilator detected some abnormalities in the index numbers of the accused persons and before the invigilator could alert the police they left the hall and ran into the bush to escape arrest.

He said authorities and invigilators at ASTS where the accused persons were to write Government Paper One were alerted, the police arrested the accused persons when they reported at the centre to write the examination with the same registration numbers. Police Chief Inspector Jebuni said they were handcuffed and while escorting them, the accused persons managed to escape with the handcuffs into a nearby thicket.

He said Police General Constable Class Two, Nelson Kwame Nadutey mastered courage and with the help of some of the candidates at the examination hall arrested them.

The prosecutor said the accused persons during investigations admitted the offence that Dokyi being clever was to write the examination for Asiedu to enable Asiedu obtain good grades.