Court jails teacher trainee 14 months for impersonation
Uthman Anuwar Sadat, a first-year student at the Nusrat Jahan Training College, has been given 14 months in prison by the Wa Circuit Court for pretending to be someone else during the just-ended Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Uthman Anuwar Sadat, who was 20 years old, pleaded guilty to impersonation and was given a sentence based on Act 719 of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Act (2016).
Mr. Donald Tuor, the Upper West Regional Controller of WAEC, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa about this. He said that Uthman Anuwar Sadat posed as Daud Hamdan Kunateh, who had signed up to take the BECE as a private candidate.
He said that Kunateh was still on the loose and that the Police were working to catch and charge him.
Mr. Tuor said that the convict was arrested after his candidacy was carefully watched because he always showed up late to the exam hall after the other candidates were searched and their admission notices were looked at.
“When we let people into the exam room, we usually look at their admission notices and search them. But this one person would run into the room after everyone else had been searched.
At the time, the people in charge of exams would have been busy passing out test materials, so they didn’t look over his admission notice as closely as they should have, the Regional Controller said.
He said that the suspect’s habit of being late raised suspicion, which made the exam monitors focus on him. On Thursday, October 20, 2022, during the Ghanaian Language paper (Dagaare), they asked him about the details on his invoice, but he couldn’t answer.
“After that, they looked at the notice of admission and saw that it wasn’t his picture. The picture didn’t look like him, so they asked him a few more questions. “It was clear from his answers that he was writing for someone else,” he said.
Mr. Tuor praised the judge, His Lordship Mr. Jonathan Avogo, for giving him a prison sentence. In many similar cases in other places, the criminals were only fined, which was not enough to stop them from doing it again.
He was also happy with how quickly the sentence was handed down.
He also said that the police did a great job because they were very professional and fair. He said, “They made a docket on time, and we went to court.”
Mr. Tuor complained about how big and complicated the problem of exam cheating was getting. He told the public not to do any of these things because they were against WAEC rules, against human values, and hurt the development of the country.
This year, the private and school candidates took the BECE at the same time as the private candidates in the Upper West Region. The private candidates in the Upper West Region took their exams at a center in the WAEC hall.
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