NDC clears Obuasi SHTS headmaster to contest chairmanship despite abuse probe

The decision follows a reconsideration of an earlier directive seeking to prevent him from contesting, with the party citing the need to protect his rights while the allegations are investigated.

NDC Deputy General Secretary Mustapha Gbande said the party’s leadership decided to hear Abdulai’s side of the matter before making a final determination.

Speaking on Joy News on Monday, October 19, he said Abdulai appeared before the party’s Functional Executive Committee to respond to the allegations, which the leadership considers serious.

He explained that the party had reviewed the issues but needed to proceed cautiously, taking into account a directive from the Education Minister and an investigative committee established by the Ghana Education Service.

According to him, Abdulai also informed the party that he had issued writs against some individuals connected to the matter.

These developments, he said, informed the decision to reverse the initial directive.

“As much as we are dealing with the public interest nature of the issues, we don’t also jeopardise the rights of the person who is involved. We want to make sure that the processes are run properly.

“We do not overrun the substantive processes triggered by the minister and the GES. So we want to see how all of this plus the documentary by my brother Manasseh, how it play out, then the party will be advised appropriately,” he said.

Asked whether Abdulai could now file his nomination and contest the election while investigations continued, Mr Gbande responded: “He can now file and proceed.”

Abdulai, a long-serving constituency secretary, is seeking to become the NDC’s constituency chairman in Obuasi.

Gbande said the party’s General Secretary would monitor the various stages of the investigation, adding that the findings would guide the leadership’s final decision on the matter.

He stressed, however, that the clearance to contest did not amount to an exoneration from the allegations.

He added that the party could act before the investigations were concluded if sufficient findings pointed to Abdulai’s guilt.

Any decision, he said, would be guided by the party’s constitution and the public interest.

“The National Executive Committee also informed him that we’ll be monitoring the process. Anytime that anything points to quite substantial evidence of his involvement in this, given the nature of the investigations that are going to be carried, the party will call him back” he added.

Gbande said the NDC was also concerned about protecting children and restoring public confidence in the country’s schools, stressing the importance of allowing the investigative processes to establish the facts.