Information reaching Wontumionline.com is that President Akufo-Addo has called on the Ministry of Education to lessen the punishment meted out to the 8 Chiana SHS students who were caught on video hurling unwarranted vitriolic at the President.
In a release issued on Friday, January 13, 2022, the Ministry of Education said the president intervened in the matter after his attention was drawn to the dismissal of the eight final-year students of Chiana Senior High School.
The release read:
The President of the Republic, H. E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has intervened in the above subject matter after it was drawn to his attention.
Consequently, the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has directed the Ghana Education Service to consider an alternative disciplinary action instead of dismissal.
Prior to this, the GES said its investigation into the incident confirmed that the students used unsavoury language against the President in a viral video.
It thus described the actions of the students as “very undesirable, and contrary to the acceptable standards of the conduct generally required of any student in Ghana’s educational system”.
Prior to the dismissal of the students, the GES had earlier apologised to the President over the said conduct.
It would be recalled that five students from the Chiana Senior High School, were captured in a video threating to use President Akufo-Addo’s “head” for money rituals.
The students, who were all females, were videoed using unprintable words at the President to the extent of insulting the mother who birthed him.
Some of the highlights of the invectives the students directed at the President were:
You do your head like sika mp3 d3d3 (sic)
Akufo-Addo we need your head for money rituals…we only need your head, your mother (sic)
You are sitting down with your big head that you are president, president for the where? (sic) I am my own president.
Reacting to the development on Wontumi TV’s Nsempa Fie Show, Odi Ahenkan Kwame Yeboah, a renowned broadcast journalist took a swipe at authorities for allowing such behavior to fester in our society.
According to Odi Ahenkan who works with Peace FM, if authorities in Ghana had cracked down on journalists who promote insults behind microphones and camera, the students at Chiana SHS wouldn’t have done same.
He singled out Onua FM’s Captain Smart of being responsible for the irresponsible behavior that is being copied by the students who were threatening to use President Akufo-Addo’s “head” for rituals.
“Captain Smart is one the persons promoting this behavior… authorities have to use this children and some journalist as scapegoats”, he called for.
“What the little girls are saying are things they hear some journalist say. They need to be punished…This is not democracy we ought to practice”, he said.