Relatives of a 15-year-old form two pupil of the Tishegu Anglican Junior High School in Tamale in the Northern region are demanding authorities of the school to take action against a teacher who allegedly defiled and impregnated the student and later gave her money to terminate the pregnancy.
The family is pushing for immediate sanctions against Kamal Ali, 26, the teacher posted to the school from the Bagabaga College of Education, who has allegedly admitted impregnating the girl and persuading her to abort.
The girl has allegedly suffered complications and currently undergoing treatment for heavy bleeding after the abortion – paid for by the teacher – nearly failed.
A furious brother of the girl, Abubakari Saddiq disclosed that the teacher filmed the moment he was defiling the minor onto his mobile phone and distributed the footage to his friends and also played it for some junior pupils to watch, during class sessions.
He said some pupils after watching the video became angry and reported the matter to some staff of the school who then informed the headmaster about the matter.
The headmaster summoned the teacher to his office, according to siblings of the girl, and grilled him over the matter, but the teacher denied, only to admit the incident after the girl insisted and corroborated the charges.
Saddiq claimed the headmaster was also informed about the complications suffered by the girl but he only directed the teacher to assist in treating the minor victim.
The incident was reported on the day the school was going for its second term academic break some three weeks.
On resumption Tuesday, May 08, 2018, the family has rejected the headmaster’s verdict and called for the Police to conduct full scale investigations.
“The girl’s future is involved; even the future also holds her marriage, nobody knows what harm this guy has caused to this girl so I prefer the guy be indicted or punished for whatever he did to that small girl,” Saddiq said.
“They are training him to be a teacher so if you (teacher) are under training and did this, now if they didn’t mind you and they send you anywhere, you would think that it is part of the teaching profession, which is wrong,” a relative added, calling for stiffer punishment for the teacher.
The teacher accused of the act has turned down multiple requests from Starr News for comments on the allegations.
School authorities, however, have responded to the matter, saying the matter would be revisited as demanded by the family of the girl.
Headmaster of the school’s A Block who spoke to Starr News said the matter would be referred to the Disciplinary Committee of the school on Thursday, for investigations and suggest sanctions.
The master who only identified himself as ‘Chief’, said the matter was brought to his attention on the very day the school was about to vacate so there was not enough time for him to thoroughly probe into it.
He promised to now swiftly implement the findings of the committee and assured that the teacher would not be shielded when found culpable.
Records at the school sighted by Starr News showed that the teacher has been reporting since the school resumed classes on Monday.
Starr News visited both the school and community where the victim leaves and found her currently fighting off severe stigmatization from school mates and residents.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Eliasu Tanko
