Kumasi Mayor Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi has rejected claims that he protected the interdicted headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHT
Kumasi Mayor Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi has rejected claims that he protected the interdicted headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Zakaria Abdulai, from disciplinary action over alleged sexual misconduct.
Giving evidence to Parliament’s Local Government Committee on October 28, 2026, Agyemang Boadi said he had no authority to supervise Abdulai or decide whether he should be sanctioned.
“What could I have done to cover up?… I’m not GES, I’m not police. I don’t have any direct supervisory role over any teacher or any officer at Obuasi SHTS,” he said.
The mayor told the committee that he had known Abdulai for several years. After being informed about the allegations, he said he invited the headmaster to his home in Obuasi to ask him directly about the claims.
Abdulai denied the allegations, according to Agyemang Boadi.
“I went to Obuasi on one occasion, and the headmaster is somebody I have known for years, and somebody drew my attention to an alleged conduct that he is putting up in the school. So, I called him to come to my house.
“He came, and I asked him, ‘This is what I’m hearing; what is happening?’ He denied everything. He went away,” he said.
The mayor said he remained dissatisfied with that response and asked his constituency secretary, who is also an English teacher at the school, to gather more information.
A senior housemistress was subsequently invited to speak with him. She told him she had also challenged the headmaster about the allegations, but that he had denied them, Agyemang Boadi said.
“Then they [my team] called the senior housemistress… So, she came, and I asked, this is what I’m hearing, has she got anything? Then the senior housemistress said that she has also confronted the headmaster, and he has denied. I told her we should not aid the headmaster in doing what he’s alleged to be doing,” he said.
Agyemang Boadi said he instructed the senior housemistress to ensure female students were not sent to the headmaster’s bungalow to carry out domestic chores.
“I begged and told her to talk to her housemistresses that they should not allow any female child to go and work in the headmaster’s bungalow. That’s all I did, and I don’t know how that one should amount to a cover-up,” he stated.
He later summoned Abdulai to his office in Kumasi, where they discussed the allegations for about 30 minutes. The mayor said he advised the headmaster not to allow female students into the bungalow, partly to prevent public perceptions about his conduct from intensifying.
“As a parent, I was concerned, so when I came back to Kumasi, I called him [headmaster] to come over to Kumasi. He came to my office, spent 30 minutes, and I admonished him to also not allow any student who is a female to come [into his bungalow], so that the perception that is being created about him in Obuasi will not be fuelled.
“All I did was to advise him to make sure that the perception that was being created about him does not become a reality,” he said.
The mayor maintained that he had no role in the disciplinary proceedings against Abdulai and could not have shielded him from punishment.
“I don’t have any direct supervisory role over the headmaster; I don’t have anything to do with whether he was going to be sanctioned or not, so I cannot, with any shred of imagination, be covering him up,” he added.
COMMENTS