PHOTO: Student Nurses duped by Teacher

The tutor, identified as Rexford Acquaye, 33, is alleged to have collected GH¢350 from each of the  students on the pretext of registering them to better their  grades  in  English, Science and Mathematics examination of the  West African Examinations Council (WAEC). They were to take the examination in June 2015.

Victims besiege police station

Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Dansoman District Police Commander, Superintendent of Police, Mr Stephen Kofi Ahiatafu, said the victims thronged the police station when they found out that they had been duped.

“That was when some of them went to the examination centre to take the practical exam and found out that the index numbers that had been given to them by Acquaye did not exist,” he said.

Mr Ahiatafu said the students told the police that between October and December 2014, Acquaye, who is a Mathematics teacher, started running a campaign in the nursing training school, offering to assist students who failed their core subjects in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

Such students, according to Acquaye, were to pay GH¢350 which would be used to register them in a private senior high school.

Those who could study on their own for the exam were to pay GH¢200 for tuition from Acquaye and some of his friends.

An extra GH¢200 was to be paid by all the students for the supply of the prescribed school uniforms of the private school where they would sit the examination to make it easy for them to mingle easily with the students of the school.

Students swerved

However, on February 4, 2015,  Acquaye is said to have mistakenly left more than 100 forms labelled examination registration forms in a taxi he had boarded.

“Because the forms had the telephone contacts of the students on them, the taxi driver called one of the contacts of the victims and the student followed up to retrieve the forms.”

He said the students subsequently confronted Acquaye over their forms but he told them the forms were intact and he had already worked on them. He also assured them that he would soon give them their index numbers.

Mr Ahiatafu said on March 12, 2015, some of the students who had to take the practical examination  went to the examination centre “but they found out that there were no index numbers reserved for them”.

He said the students became alarmed and immediately reported the incident to the police.

During interrogation, Acquaye confessed taking the money from the students but had failed to register them.

He said he had given part of the money to a friend (name withheld) who was currently on the run.

Mr Ahiatafu cautioned persons who had referral examination papers to write to contact approved institutions “and not rely on individuals or agents as they might end up swindling them”.