Anger in Yendi as award for daughter of farmer is swapped

Anger is sweeping through the Yendi township in the Northern region after it emerged that a 17-year-old first-year student of the Tamale Senior High School tipped as winner of this year’s annual president’s award has suddenly been replaced.

Miss Yakubu Hasanatu completed Abartey Junior High School in the municipal capital this year and scored an incredibly grade of seven ones.

She was nominated among 21 others in the region for the top prize but she topped her contenders after a vigorous interview session by officials of the Ghana Education Service.

She was announced the overall winner of the award by the panel who conducted the interview and same was communicated to her parents.

However, few days to the date of the award, authorities of the regional education service surprisingly replaced her with a different candidate, Abubakari H. Yussif, who only acquired five ones.

The incident has sparked angry reactions with many people crying foul over the matter. The father of the girl, 45-year-old farmer, Yakubu Salifu said her daughter was cheated because of his poor financial standing.

According to him, he was informed her daughter had been elected as the winner of the award and that he had prepared with her daughter waiting for the award day only to be told her daughter’s name had been dropped.

Yakubu said he wanted the whole world to know about the injustice carried out against her daughter by authorities of the Ghana Education Service.

The Yendi Municipal Assembly has petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo calling for his intervention to ensure the award went to the deserving student.

Municipal Chief Executive, Alhaji Ahmed Abubakari who signed the petition insisted Miss Hasanatu should be given the award and not Abubakari Yussif who scored a lesser grade.

“It is against this backdrop that, I have tendered in this petition on her behalf for your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Ghana to intervene for the right thing to be done, for justice and fairness to prevail in this matter, please,” the MCE requested in the petition.

He told Starr News in a later interview that he was demanding the selection committee to look into the case and ensure justice.

“Because I heard the information late, so all I needed to do is to put out the petition so that the authorities that to crosscheck with the selection committee, whether what we are saying is true or not,” he said, adding “I’m looking for justice to prevail and nothing else.