Two granted bail in examination leakage case

Accra, Oct. 14, GNA - Two persons allegedly behind the leakage of th= is year's November/December West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) papers were on Wednesday granted GH¢150,000 bail w= ith four sureties, two to be justified.

The two, Francis Ahidome, aka Yesu Vi, a technician, and Magnus Adzimah, aka Rockfeller, a teacher of Adidome Local Authority Primary Sch= ool in the Volta Region, are to report to the Police once a week. 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.

The court presided over Mr D.E.K. Daketse ordered them to reappear on October 27. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says the leakage of Electiv= e and Core Maths, English Language Paper 2 and Integrated Science has cost them GH¢200,840.

Giving evidence on the matter, Mr. Frederick Selby, Director of Legal Services, WAEC, who coordinated security issues at the Council, said he h= ad information about the examination leakage on September 12. He therefore gave instructions to his officers to look out for sufficien= t evidence from the candidates. Mr. Selby said his officers interrogated 47 private candidates and after=

the interrogation, he settled on three leads. The leads, he said, included photocopies of some examination papers in Tema, phone numbers offered by the candidates and confiscation of photoco= py machines. Mr. Selby said he handed over the phone numbers to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service and someone who was=

arrested mentioned Adzimah as the source. "I waited in Accra while the Police operated in Adidome and they brought=

along Adzimah to Accra. Mr. Selby said he was at the Police Headquarters when Adzimah was interrogated and he mentioned Ahidome as his source. When Ahidome was arrested he confirmed stealing the examination papers. Mr. Selby said Adzimah confessed to stealing the papers which he passed on to Ahidome. Ahidome said he was the son of the Chief of Adidome and he was arrested at the palace while he was selling the question papers. Due to the leakage, Mr Selby said, the rescheduling the examinations, re-printing and distribution of the fresh examination papers cost the Council GH¢28,500. According to Mr. Selby, the conduct of the accused persons put candidate= s under stress and opened the Council to ridicule. The case of prosecution is that 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 Departme= nt (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 whe= n 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 label= led them as Junior High School papers and gave them out to students. The prosecution said investigations revealed that Ahidome was an employe= e 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.