Primary 5 girl gets 12 months in prison over teachers’ assault

The 15-year-old class five pupil of St John Primary School who allegedly organized some thugs to assault her teachers during school hours at Accra New Town, has been slapped with a 12-month non-custodial sentence by a Juvenile Court in Accra.

The accused, (name withheld) was also fined an amount of GH¢360 and made to sign a bond to be of good behaviour after she was found guilty of organizing thugs to assault her teachers.

This comes after two of her accomplices who led the assault, were given a 12-month prison term each in hard labour.

The others included suspects Hamza Mohammed and another identified as Swallah.

ASP Effia Tenge, the Accra Regional police spokesperson, confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that the class five pupil, together with Swalla and Hamza, were arrested and sent to the Kaneshie magistrate court where they all pleaded guilty to various counts of conspiracy and assault.

The two men were given their sentence but the girl, identified only as Aisha, was referred to the juvenile court for sentencing since she is a minor. On Thursday, the court passed the judgement against her.

Meanwhile, one of the suspects is allegedly on the run and yet to be arrested.

Background

Teachers of St. John’s 1 & 2 Primary School were assaulted by thugs who invaded the school on June 6, 2016.

A class five pupil of the school was reported to have called in the thugs after she had been punished by her teacher for misconduct.

The girl allegedly walked out of the class when her teacher asked her to “kneel down” but returned 20 munities later with the thugs, numbering about six, to attack the teachers.

The thugs, wielding pieces of stick, broken bottles, knives, canes and other weapons, moved from class to class and brutally assaulted the teachers in the classrooms.

Some of the pupils were also beaten up in the course of the attack.

The reports indicated that the female teachers were the most affected as the male teachers bolted.

Following the attack, a number of the teachers and pupils were injured while their mobile phones and other personal belongings were also stolen.

One of the pupils, according to reports, who had a mobile phone on him, allegedly took a video footage of the attack which later went viral on the social media. Teachers Transferred

The school was shut down temporarily on June 7, 2016 after the incident.

The teachers, who suffered the attack, were later transferred by the Ghana Educational Service (GES) to ensure their safety.

A total of 17 suspects were arrested in connection with the assault by the Nima divisional police on June 20, 2016 and after an identification parade was conducted, the two were held for the assault.