2022 BECE: Teacher Trainee Jailed 14 Months For Impersonation
The Wa Circuit Court has sentenced a first-year student of the Nusrat Jahan Training College, Uthman Anuwar Sadat, to 14 months imprisonment for impersonation during the just-ended Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
Uthman Anuwar Sadat, aged 20, pleaded guilty to the charge of impersonation and was sentenced according to the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Act, Act 719 (2016).
The Upper West Regional Controller of WAEC, Mr Donald Tuor, disclosed that Uthman Anuwar Sadat impersonated one Daud Hamdan Kunateh, who registered to write the BECE as a private candidate.
Mr Tuor explained that the convict was arrested following a thorough surveillance of his candidacy after recurrently reporting to the examination hall late after the other candidates were searched and their admission notices inspected.
“Usually, in admitting candidates into the exams hall, we inspect their admission notices and search them. But this guy would run into the examination hall after his colleagues had been searched.
At the time, examination officials would be busy sharing the examination material, so they were not scrutinising his admission notice as they should, ” the Regional Controller said.
He indicated that the repeated lateness of the suspect raised suspicion, which led the invigilators to put the spotlight on him. During the Ghanaian Language paper (Dagaare) on Thursday, October 20, 2022, they queried him regarding his invoice details, which he could not respond to.
“From there, they shifted to the admission notice and realised that it was not his picture that was on it; the picture was different from his face, and so they asked him a few more questions. His responses clearly revealed that he was writing for somebody else”, he added.
Mr Tuor commended the judge, His Lordship Mr Jonathan Avogo, for imposing a custodial sentence since, in many such cases elsewhere, the culprits were fined, which was not deterrent enough.
He also noted with satisfaction the dispatch with which the sentencing was done.
He also commended the police for doing an excellent job by being very professional and objective, saying, “They built a docket timeously, and we went to court”.
Mr Tuor bemoaned the magnitude and complicated trend of examination malpractices. He advised the public against engaging in such acts as they were against WAEC laws, human values, and inimical to the country’s development.
The private and school candidates wrote this year’s BECE concurrently with the private candidates in the Upper West Region sitting for their papers at a centre at the WAEC hall.