Obuasi SHTS: 'Children are not buffet' – NPP’s Fatimatu confronts Zuba

A member of the opposition New Parotitic Party (NPP) Fatimatu Abubakar has criticised Kumasi Mayor Richard Ofori-Agyemang Boadi, popularly known as Zuba, over his reported description of the allegations against Obuasi Senior High Technical School headmaster Zakaria Abdulai as a possible “weakness with women.”

Abubakar said the comment, which she discussed after watching a documentary on the case, appeared to humanise the alleged perpetrator while overlooking the experiences of the students who had reported abuse.

Recounting the mayor’s reported remarks, she said he had explained that he knew the headmaster and had spoken to him after the initial complaint.

According to Abubakar, the mayor said that when further complaints emerged, he spoke to the headmaster again and suggested that “maybe he has a weakness with women.”

Fatimatu strongly challenged that framing, arguing that allegations involving schoolchildren should not be treated as a personal weakness or a matter to be discussed informally with the person accused.

“How are we humanising perpetrators and stigmatising victims?” she asked on TV3’s Keypoints.

She added, "He has a weakness to some people’s children. So because of his weakness, we should spread children in schools like buffet for the person.”

The NPP member said the response to such allegations should prioritise the protection of students and a proper investigation rather than attempts to explain away the alleged conduct.

She also questioned why adults in positions of authority would invite an alleged perpetrator to meetings and engage with families about the matter instead of ensuring that the appropriate authorities investigated the complaints.

Fatimatu maintained that allegations of sexual offences against students required serious attention and should not be reduced to a question of a man’s attraction to women.

-Mynewsgh