The Agona Swedru Magistrate Court has convicted 7 persons for impersonation in the 2020 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
The Seven persons include three students, two teachers and two administrators.
The prosecutor recounted in court on Wednesday that one George Agyekum, who is a complainant in the case led WAEC officials around when the final year SHS students were writing the WASSCE at the various Senior High Schools within Agona Swedru and its environs to check the conduct of the examination.
The police prosecutor, Inspector Chare Salia stated the WASSCE officials asked for the index numbers of some of the candidates and verification of their names in the database of WAEC showed there was some impersonation.
The police suspected Coffie Boakye Nana Yaw had impersonated Hotor Saviour; Clement Sarfo had impersonated Tetteh-Courtnay Clinton Larry, and Bawah David had also impersonated John Faati.
Additionally, he stated that Georgina Danso had also impersonated Odamatey Father Justice Nii Laryea while Desmond Oduro also impersonated Coffie Boakye Nana Yaw.
The prosecutor indicated the suspects were arrested and during interrogation, the suspects admitted that it was Richard Nkrumah and Cedric Sefah Akyeampong who contracted them to impersonate Huntor Savior, Tetteh-Courtnay Clinton Larry, John Faati, Odamatey Father Justice Nii Laryea and Coffie Boakye Nana Yaw to write the WASSCE Core subjects for them.
The named persons had earlier successfully written the Integrated Science and Social Studies papers. They had also already written paper two of Core Mathematics and were in the process of writing the Mathematics paper one when they were arrested.
“On August 20, 2020, Nkrumah and Sefah Acheampong who were at large were arrested and they admitted to the offence in their caution statement,” the Prosecutor added.https://99d1f29de5eba745492e20c2261bab06.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Georgina Danso, Desmond Oduro and David Bawah, second-year students of the Ngleshie Amanfrom SHS in the Greater Accra Region, were fined ¢1,200 each and barred from taking part in any WASSCE for three years.
An administrator at the Central High School at Agona Swedru, Osman Ahmed, and Clement Sarfo, a staff of the same school were both fined ¢1,200 each. Cedric Sefah Acheampong another teacher at Central High School was also fined ¢2,400.
A teacher at Ngleshie Amanfrom SHS, Richard Nkrumah, alias Emperor, who is also the Assistant Headmaster of Central High School, was sentenced to six months imprisonment.
The convicts initially pleaded not guilty to the charges of impersonation and abetment to commit a crime but they were found guilty at the end of the trial and were subsequently sentenced by the court on Wednesday, July 21,
After convicting the accused, the presiding magistrate, Isaac Apeatu, hoped that the conviction of the seven persons would serve as a deterrent to many others who have planned and would plan to undertake a similar enterprise.