Teachers' Susu Money Turns Into Red Ants

Keta -- How an amount of ?5 million being kept in a drawer under lock and key suddenly turned into an army of red ants may forever puzzle the Tsiame community in the Keta District of the Volta Region.

The money, was said to be in the custody of the headteacher of the Tsiame Basic School, Mr John Deyegbe. At a meeting at the Keta District Assembly hall recently, the entire gathering was dumbfounded when Mr Deyegbe revealed that the amount that was in his custody had turned into red ants.

He explained that the money, being various contributions by staff of the school to their welfare fund which he had kept in a drawer in his bedroom, could not be found but in its place was a large army of red ants. According to Mr Deyegbe, he suspected that someone migh have used juju to make the money disappear from the drawer and conjured the red ants to replace it.

The meeting was held at the instance of the Members of Parliament for the Anlo and Keta constituencies, Hon James Victor Gbeho and Hon Dan Abodakpi respectively, and the District Chief Executive, as well as Mr E. K. Vorkeh, to resolve an impasse between the Tsiame community and the teachers of the basic school over alleged threats by some members of the community to use juju against the teachers.

The teachers, scared by the threats, resolved to obtain transfers en masse from the Tsiame Basic School. It was during the meeting that the headteacher, in an attempt to justify the juju threats, threw the bombshell and narrated the mysterious loss of ?5 million being teachers’ contributions. This caused an uproar.

A source at the meeting said the headteacher’s story was found to be baseless and that he was at the centre of instigating the teachers in his school to seek mass transfer, purely for selfish reasons.

The meeting was of the firm opinion that the headteacher had again fraudulently persuaded the teachers to resign en block because the District Director of Education, Mr S. K. Dewotor, had so counselled.

The source said the teachers and all those faced with the threat of juju were encouraged to draw on their Christian faith and the law when confronted with such situations, rather than succumb so easily to fraudulent and intimidating threats.

Mr Deyegbe, it was learnt, had been transferred to ensure that peace and cordial relations would exist between the teachers and the Tsiame community.