Nineteen Girls. One Headmaster. A System That Looked Away.
At least 19 female students of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS) in Ghana's Ashanti Region have accused their headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, of sexual abuse over roughly the past year. The allegations range from harassment to rape. He denies them. No court has ruled.
What happened next is a story about him. It is also a story about everyone who was told, and did nothing. (CDD-Ghana via ModernGhana; Ghanaian Times)
What is alleged
The account that started it is precise.
A Form Two (grade 11) student says that on 25 July 2026 the headmaster called her to his official bungalow on the pretext of an errand, then forced himself on her. She says he later gave her GH¢100 to stay silent. She reported it to the Obuasi Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) on 4 August, accompanied by her father. (Adom Online)
She says she told teachers and house mistresses first. None went to the police. (Adom Online)
Then the number grew. Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni was first told of five students. On campus, it became 14. Then 16. Then 19. (MyJoyOnline)
Police say semen was allegedly found on one student's dress. A court order is being sought for a DNA test. (GNA)
How it surfaced
July 2026: Old students' association petitions for an investigation. (ModernGhana)
4 August: First formal complaint lodged with DOVVSU. (Adom Online)
5 August: Students riot, beat the headmaster and damage his bungalow over unverified claims he buried an infant on campus. Six students are arrested. (Graphic; Adom Online)
14 October: Ghana Education Service interdicts the headmaster after the JoyNews documentary Inside the Dreaded Headmaster's Bungalow airs. (CDD-Ghana via ModernGhana)
20 October: The ruling party, NDC directs Abdulai to step aside from the Juaben chairmanship race. He later resigns as constituency secretary. (Graphic; Adom Online)
The girls did not stay silent. They petitioned education directors and local officials. The response, by one MP's account, never came. (Adom Online)
Where the case stands
Two official accounts. They do not match.
On 20 October, Interior Minister Muntaka Mubarak told Parliament the headmaster had been arrested and the CID had taken over. (GNA)
The Bekwai Police say otherwise. He was arrested after the August complaint, granted bail, and is at home. (Adom Online)
The docket now with the Attorney General covers one complaint. Not nineteen. Police say the others will be investigated only if formally reported. (Adom Online)
Abdulai maintains his innocence and says he will pursue every lawful avenue to clear his name.
The system that failed
A district inquiry reportedly heard from 9 of 26 students. It treated one girl's account of unwanted touching as merely her "definition" of assault. (CDD-Ghana via ModernGhana)
A lawyer for two of the girls says a national intelligence report on the matter existed more than a year ago. He also alleges people close to the headmaster are pressing complainants to withdraw. (Adom Online)
Obuasi is not an exception. JoyNews Research has tracked at least 44 cases of teachers and school heads accused of sexually abusing students since 2015. No senior high school head has ever been convicted. No dismissal for sexual misconduct has been reported since 2019. (MyJoyOnline)
We have seen this before
Obuasi is not the first school to fail a child. It is not the first one I have seen.
About five years ago, a Lead For Ghana Staff Associate teaching full-time at a basic school in the Northern Region came to us. A student had confided in her that a GES teacher had been sexually abusing her, most recently the same day she confided in her. Our Staff Associate escalated it immediately. Within days, I was at the school.
We asked for the teacher's immediate arrest and removal. We reported the case to the police.
Then the system took over.
The police did not arrest him.
The evidence went nowhere. We handed over the girl's school uniform, which we believed carried semen. Police told us the only DNA testing facility in the country was in Accra, about 11 hours away, and suggested we take it there ourselves.
The school protected the adult. It refused to remove the teacher, citing his institutional knowledge. It moved the girl instead, to a school where we did not work.
The family was pressured. The girl's parents and caregivers told us community members, rallied by the teacher, threatened them with violence. They asked us to withdraw the case. We did not.
We knew our limits. We were not equipped to care for her trauma, so we brought in another non-profit that specialises in child sexual abuse to support her while we pursued the police case.
Nearly five years later, the case is still unresolved.
For raising it, we were called arrogant and all-knowing. We have grown used to that. But every teacher who sees abuse learns the same lesson from it: speaking up has a cost. That is how silence is built.
Look at Obuasi and you see the same pattern. Adults were told and did not report. (Adom Online) Justice waits on a DNA test. (GNA) Complainants are allegedly being pressed to withdraw. (Adom Online)
Different school. Different region. Same system.
Red is a signal. A network is the solution.
On 21 October, activists declared "Red Wednesday" in solidarity with the girls. Broadcaster Oheneyere Gifty Anti wore red for every girl who has suffered abuse. She also called for the prosecution of everyone who failed to report the case. (Yen)
That second demand matters more than the colour.
Wearing red can build pressure. It can also become the whole response: a photo posted, a conscience eased, a system unchanged. These girls did not lack sympathy. They lacked adults and offices that acted on what they were told.
This is a systems problem. No single actor can fix it. Not a school. Not the police. Not one NPO. It takes a network, working now and for the long haul.
Now
Remove the accused, not the child. Take the accused adult out of contact with students while a case is investigated.
Reporting that bypasses the head. Confidential channels such as a national toll-free line linked to Social Welfare and DOVVSU. (CDD-Ghana via ModernGhana)
Investigations built for children. Trained officers and safe settings that spare victims repeated interviews. (Graphic) Forensic testing should be the state's job, never the family's.
Care that lasts. Sustained medical and psychosocial support and individual education plans, not one-off counselling. (Graphic)
Protection for families and whistleblowers. Intimidation should end a career, not a case.
For the long term
Accountability beyond the accused. Action against officials who sat on complaints. (Graphic)
Referral networks. Formal links between schools, police, social welfare and specialist NPOs, so no one carries a case alone.
Safeguarding training for every teacher, so every adult in a school knows what to report and to whom.
Outcomes made public. Recent cases have ended at interdiction with no published result. (MyJoyOnline) Every case should be tracked to its conclusion.
Wear red. Then ask who is building the rest.
What comes next
The allegations are unproven. The headmaster is presumed innocent until a court decides otherwise.
Abuse of power does not stay in the classroom. It follows people into universities and workplaces. But it starts in the classroom, and that is where it must be stopped.
Our students deserve to be safe when they show up to their schools. Nothing less.
