Reinstate Ashanti Regional and Obuasi East Education Directors Now – Yaw Opoku Mensah Demands

The Personal Assistant to former Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Yaw Opoku Mensah, has called for the immediate reinstatement of the Ashanti Regional Director of Education and the Obuasi East District Director of Education over their interdiction in connection with the Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS) case.

In a strongly worded statement, Mr. Opoku Mensah accused the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) of sacrificing innocent subordinates to shield himself from public backlash.

“The Director General of Ghana Education cannot be allowed to sacrifice the Ashanti Regional and the Obuasi East Director on a claim of playing a role in the Obuasi SHTS case when the Director General received the report from his own committee on 16th of September without acting until 14th October when the minister directed the heads’ interdiction,” he stated.

According to him, the DG’s failure to act in the early days after receiving the committee report shows a deliberate interest in shielding the Headmaster for political reasons.

“The Director General’s failure to interdict the head in the early days shows his interest in shielding the Headmaster for political reasons. We cannot allow the director general to sacrifice innocent subordinates to protect himself from public backlash. He should be the one to suffer for his inaction on the matter,” he said.

Mr. Opoku Mensah also questioned the basis for including the Obuasi East Director in the matter, arguing that the school in question does not fall within his jurisdiction.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Obuasi SHTS is not in the jurisdiction of Mr. Nketia who is the Director for Obuasi East while the school is in Obuasi West and has no jurisdiction over SHS according to Act 1049,” he explained.

“In what role will the Obuasi East Director play in the case when the Obuasi West Director admitted to not acting on the numerous petitions he received on the rape cases?” he quizzed.

He further alleged that the Director General only took interest in the matter on October 14 after a ministerial directive, yet is now attempting to sacrifice the Regional Director and the Obuasi East Director for what he described as non-existent allegations.

“The Director General of the Ghana Education Service who only took interest in the matter on the 14th of October after a ministerial directive is now trying to sacrifice the Regional Director and the Obuasi East Director for nonexistent allegations of playing a role when they acted on his interest at the committee level,” he stated.

Mr. Opoku Mensah described the interdiction as “purely mischievous and politically tainted to save the skin of the DG from a possible public call for his head for sacrificing the interest of the service for partisan interest.”

He is therefore demanding the immediate reinstatement of the two directors.