Police follow "links" in examination leakage case

Accra, Oct. 7, GNA - The Police say they have stumbled on "links" and retrieved equipment in the case of two persons allegedly behind the leakage of this year's November/December West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) examination papers.

This came up on Wednesday when the accused persons appeared before an Accra Circuit Court for the second time.

The two are Francis Ahidome, aka Yesu Vi, a technician, and Magnus Adzimah, aka Rockfeller, a teacher of Adidome Local Authority Primary School in the Volta Region.

They have pleaded not guilty to 17 counts of stealing, illegal possession of examination papers, conspiracy and leakage of examination, and other related examination malpractices.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr A.A. Annor said in order to get to the bottom of the matter they would seek a week's adjournment. The court presided over by Mr D.E.K. Daketse after listening to a bail application put in by lawyers of the accused persons, declined bail and remanded them into police custody to reappear on October 14. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says the leakage of Elective and Core Maths, English Language Paper 2, and Integrated Science has cost them GH¢200,840.

The prosecution said during the conduct of November/December 2009 WASSCE English Language Paper One on September 12, WAEC picked up information and exhibits which indicated that the papers being written on that day had been compromised.

A complaint was therefore lodged at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters and investigations conducted led to the arrest of a witness who had in his possession questions on English Language, Core and Elective Maths as well as Integrated Science. During interrogation the witness, who was preparing for the examination, mentioned Adzimah as the one who gave them to him. On September 17 Adzimah was arrested at Adidome in the Volta Region when he approached an undercover policewoman in an attempt to sell some of the examination questions to her.

Adzimah during interrogation mentioned Ahidome as his source of supply. Subsequently, Ahidome was arrested for further investigations. In Ahidome's statement to the Police he admitted the offence and stated that during the printing of the English Language, Core and Elective Maths and Integrated Science for the November/December WASSCE, he stole the examination papers from the booklet maker.

He said he later copied the questions on different sheets of paper and answered some of them after which he gave them to Adzimah, who also labelled them as Junior High School papers and gave them out to students.

The prosecution said investigations revealed that Ahidome was an employee of KEAT Investment Ghana Limited, a company contracted by WAEC to service their printing machines, and he was one of the technicians who worked on the machine.

The prosecutor said due to the stealing and subsequent leakage of the examination papers, WAEC had incurred a loss of GH¢200,840, following the cancellation of the English Language paper and suspension of Core and Elective Maths and Integrated Science papers, since new sets of papers had to be printed.

The prosecution said further investigations were being conducted in an effort to apprehending other suspects involved in the leakage and distribution of the examination papers. 7 Oct. 09