Eight persons are in the grips of the police for their roles in the school placement fraud uncovered by The Fourth Estate.

The suspects are said to be part of a syndicate that sold placement slots in Senior High Schools during the 2022 Computerised School Selection and Placement exercise.

They are Eric Aggrey, a cleaner; Rachel Aryeetey, a caterer; Isaac Mensah, and Gilbert Afriyie Nkrumah.

The rest are Sebastian Appram, a staff of the Fisheries Commission’s Tema Regional Office; Bernard Kusi Agyemang, an operations manager with a logistics company; Eugenia Abigail Ahiable, an administrator; and Daniel Opoku, a foreman.

The Fourth Estate investigations revealed that the suspects worked with other intermediaries to effect placement into senior high schools after they demanded and took money ranging from GH¢8,000 to GH¢20,000.

Private citizens

Eric Aggrey, with the assistance of other intermediaries, changed placement from Apam Senior High School to Aggrey Memorial AME Zion School and from Presbyterian Senior High Technical School, Aburi, to Mfantsiman Girls in the Central Region.

Eric and his network demanded and took GH¢19,500 for placing two candidates at Aggrey Memorial and Mfantsiman Girls, both in the Central Region.

Cartel

Eric confessed to taking money from some people. He also admitted to receiving a list of vacancies of schools from Rachel, another member of the cartel.

Rachel also admitted and mentioned another person, a private security guard in a basic school opposite her house, as the facilitator for everyone she had assisted to get placement changed.

Rachel said the security guard, called Isaac Mensah, also gave the money he collected to his friend whom she (Rachel) had never met.

She said Isaac’s brother owed her money for his inability to change placement for the last candidate she presented.

The police subsequently arrested Isaac who also mentioned Sebastian Appram as the person who assisted him.

Gilbert Afriyie Nkrumah was invited to the Accra Central Police station and was arrested on October 28, 2022.

Student placement

Three others were later arrested. Daniel Opoku, a foreman, mentioned the name of twin brothers, Atta Kuffuor senior, a lab technician; and Atta Kuffuor Junior, an IT expert, who finally helped to change the placement of a student from Aburi Presbyterian Senior High School to Mfantsiman Girls Senior High School.

The twins were already on the run for similar offences, Daniel Opoku told the Police in his statement.

Investigations later revealed that Rachel could not have placed a student into Mfantsiman Girls without the approval of the Minister of Education or the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, the only two individuals with passwords to Category A schools.

How the names of students got to the Education Minister or the GES Director-General for placement into category A schools is easy to find, according to the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Adutwum.

Dr Adutwum said only the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service’s office and the Ministry of Education had access to category A schools in the placement system. Our checks revealed that full access to such protocol placement was limited to only two individuals; the Minister for Education and the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service.

Meanwhile, the suspects have been granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court.