Mayor of Kumasi, Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi, has denied allegations that he is shielding the interdicted Headmaster of Obuasi Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Zakaria Abdulai, from accountability over alleged sexual misconduct.

During an appearance before Parliament’s Local Government Committee on October 28, 2026, Agyemang Boadi said he had no supervisory authority over the headmaster and could not determine whether he should be sanctioned.

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“What could I have done to cover up?... I'm not GES, I'm not police. I don't have any direct supervisory role over any teacher or any officer at Obuasi SHTS,” he said.

Asked about his relationship with the headmaster, he said he had known him for years and decided to speak to him after someone drew his attention to the alleged conduct at the school.

He said he invited Abdulai to his house in Obuasi to ask him about the allegations, but the headmaster denied them.

“I went to Obuasi on one occasion, and the headmaster is somebody I have known for years, and somebody drew my attention to an alleged conduct that he is putting up in the school. So, I called him to come to my house.

“He came, and I asked him, ‘This is what I'm hearing; what is happening?’ He denied everything. He went away,” he disclosed.

Agyemang Boadi said he was not satisfied with the response and subsequently asked his constituency secretary, who is also an English teacher at the school, to contact someone there for further information.

He said the senior housemistress was later invited to speak with him and disclosed that she had also confronted the headmaster, who denied the allegations.

“Then they [my team] called the senior housemistress… So, she came, and I asked, this is what I'm hearing, has she got anything? Then the senior housemistress said that she has also confronted the headmaster, and he has denied. I told her we should not aid the headmaster in doing what he's alleged to be doing,” he said.

The mayor said he then advised the senior housemistress to ensure that female students were not allowed to go to the headmaster’s bungalow to undertake any domestic chores.

He questioned how his attempted efforts to address the matter could be considered a cover-up.

“I begged and told her to talk to her housemistresses that they should not allow any female child to go and work in the headmaster's bungalow. That's all I did, and I don't know how that one should amount to a cover-up,” he stated.

He added that he later invited the headmaster to his office in Kumasi, where they spent about 30 minutes discussing the allegations and the concerns surrounding his conduct.

Agyemang Boadi said he advised Abdulai not to allow female students into his bungalow to prevent the allegations and public perception surrounding him from worsening.

“As a parent, I was concerned, so when I came back to Kumasi, I called him [headmaster] to come over to Kumasi. He came to my office, spent 30 minutes, and I admonished him to also not allow any student who is a female to come [into his bungalow], so that the perception that is being created about him in Obuasi will not be fuelled.

“All I did was to advise him to make sure that the perception that was being created about him does not become a reality,” he said.

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The mayor insisted that he had no role in the disciplinary process against the headmaster and therefore could not be accused of protecting him from sanctions.

“I don't have any direct supervisory role over the headmaster; I don't have anything to do with whether he was going to be sanctioned or not, so I cannot, with any shred of imagination, be covering him up,” he added.

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