The police have eight people in custody for their roles in the school placement fraud that The Fourth Estate discovered.
During the 2022 Computerized School Selection and Placement exercise, the suspects allegedly worked as a syndicate to sell placement slots in senior high schools.
They are Isaac Mensah, Gilbert Afriyie Nkrumah, Rachel Aryeetey, a caterer, and cleaners Eric Aggrey and Aggrey.
Sebastian Appram, an employee of the Fisheries Commission’s Tema Regional Office, Bernard Kusi Agyemang, a logistics company operations manager, Eugenia Abigail Ahiable, an administrator, and Daniel Opoku, a foreman, make up the remaining group.
After demanding and accepting money ranging from GH8,000 to GH20,000, the suspects collaborated with other middlemen to get placement into senior high schools, according to the Fourth Estate investigations.
Sebastian Appram, an employee of the Fisheries Commission’s Tema Regional Office, Bernard Kusi Agyemang, a logistics company operations manager, Eugenia Abigail Ahiable, an administrator, and Daniel Opoku, a foreman, make up the remaining group.
After demanding and accepting money ranging from GH8,000 to GH20,000, the suspects collaborated with other middlemen to get placement into senior high schools, according to the Fourth Estate investigations.
Eric Aggrey switched schools, attending Aggrey Memorial AME Zion School instead of Apam Senior High School and Presbyterian Senior High Technical School, Aburi instead of Mfantsiman Girls in the Central Region.
Cartel
For the placement of two candidates at Aggrey Memorial and Mfantsiman Girls, both in the Central Region, Eric and his network requested and collected GH19,500.
Eric admitted to robbing certain people of their money. Additionally, he acknowledged getting a list of open schools from Rachel, another cartel member.
In addition, Rachel acknowledged that someone else—a private security officer working in the elementary school next to her home—had facilitated everyone’s placement changes.
The security guard, Isaac Mensah, according to Rachel, also gave his friend, who Rachel had never met, the money he collected. She claimed Isaac’s brother owed her money because she couldn’t get the last candidate she brought placed because he couldn’t.
After then, the authorities detained Isaac, who identified Sebastian Appram as the guy who helped him.On October 28, 2022, Gilbert Afriyie Nkrumah was detained after being invited to the Accra Central Police station.
School Placement
Later, police detained three more people. The twin brothers Atta Kuffuor, senior, a lab technician, and Atta Kuffuor, junior, an IT specialist, were cited by foreman Daniel Opoku as the individuals who ultimately assisted in moving a student from Aburi Presbyterian Senior High School to Mfantsiman Girls Senior High School.
According to Daniel Opoku’s confession to the police, the twins had already fled the scene for crimes comparable to their own.
Investigations eventually found that only the Minister of Education and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, who are the only people with access codes to Category A schools, could have authorized Rachel to enroll a pupil in Mfantsiman Girls.
According to the Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, it is simple to find out how the names of children arrived at the Education Minister or the GES Director-General for placement into category A schools.
Only the Ministry of Education and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, according to Dr. Adutwum, have access to category A schools under the placement system. Our investigations showed that just two people—the minister of education and the director-general of the Ghana Education Service—had complete access to such protocol placement.
A Circuit Court in Accra has granted bail to the suspects in the interim.