Executive Director of the Ark Foundation, Dr Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, says the NDC should ask the headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School to step aside from his political role while sexual abuse allegations against him are investigated.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Monday, October 19, she said the move would help protect the process and build survivors’ confidence.
“I would have wanted them to let him step aside, you know, just so that they can free up the system, quote unquote, for whatever needs to happen to happen.”
“After all, if he’s able to clear himself, he can always come back, you know, one day to do something or the other.”
The headmaster, Zakaria Abdulai, is the subject of Manasseh Azure Awuni’s documentary, Inside the Dreaded Headmaster’s Bungalow.
It examines allegations of sexual abuse involving female students at the school. He is also the NDC’s Juaben Constituency Secretary and a candidate for the constituency chairmanship.
The NDC has allowed him to contest while investigations continue. The party says it will remove him if he is found guilty, even if he wins. The allegations remain under investigation.
Dr Dwamena-Aboagye acknowledged the presumption of innocence. But she said the party should also consider practices that protect complainants and prevent interference.
“In other jurisdictions, just a mere allegation is enough to let you be set aside, so that you won’t interfere with any process if you are in any place of any kind of authority.”
She argued that the response must recognise how difficult it is for survivors to speak.
“You need to give survivors the confidence that somebody will believe them, knowing already that they have found it very hard to come out and speak about it.”
She also criticised the laughter heard during a replay of a discussion about a girl’s alleged experience at a chief’s palace. Such reactions, she said, discourage reporting and shape institutional responses.
“So, yeah, we have a broken system, generally speaking, in Ghana when it comes to responding to survivors.”
For her, the failure extends beyond political leadership. Ghana has laws, policies and procedures, but lacks the resolve to make them work.
“I do not think we have enough will—not just the political will, but the cultural will, the human will—to tackle something that is very endemic in our society.”
“So we need to sit up.”