Teacher jailed for defrauding former pupil

A Thirty-Seven-year-old teacher of Manwe Junior Secondary School (JSS) in the Wa municipality of the Upper West Region, Siita Seidu, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Wa Circuit Court for defrauding his former pupil of ?14 million. The former pupil, Godfred Bafira, 26, now a commercial farmer, thought he had seen a 'saviour' when he met the teacher who taught him in Primary Five at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Wa, where he had gone to deposit the ?14 million.

Presenting the facts of the case, the prosecutor, Police Chief Inspector Dobara said the farmer confided in his teacher that he had gone to deposit his money, but since the bank was full, he wanted the teacher to help him go through the formalities.

The prosecutor said the teacher took the bank book from the farmer and asked him to follow him to the house and when they entered his room, he opened the Holy Koran and swore by it that the former pupil should have trust in him and leave the bank book and the money with him and return to his village because he would deposit the money for him. Chief Inspector Dobara said as his former teacher and a Muslim who had sworn on the Holy Koran, the farmer entrusted the money into his care and left for his village.

The prosecutor said when Bafira went back in a month and a half time and wanted to access his account, he went to the accused to collect his bank book. But to his astonishment only ?1.4 million had been deposited in his account.

He said the teacher signed an undertaken to repay the money to his former pupil but when the time elapsed this month, he was able to refund only ?4.4 million and the matter was reported to the police.

Sentencing the convict, the presiding judge, Alhaji M.A. Mustapha, remarked that Seidu had breached the absolute trust a pupil had for a teacher and callously defrauded him, which deserved severe punishment to serve as a deterrent.