Headmaster arrested after students drowned harvesting his rice farm

The headmaster of St Charles Lwanga Roman Catholic Junior High School in the Saboba District of the Northern Region has been arrested, the Ghana Police Service has announced.

Jashain Emmanuel was detained in connection with the drowning of a number of pupils he allegedly sent to harvest rice on his farm.

He is expected to appear in court on Monday (15 November).

Seven confirmed dead

At least seven junior high school pupils have been confirmed dead in a boating disaster on the Oti River in the Saboba District of the Northern Region.

Three pupils are still missing; 21 others were rescued on Friday, said Assistant Superintendent of Police Shine Zokoiku, the Saboba District commander.

The dead children are said to have been returning from a farm on Friday when the vessel capsized on the river. It is also reported that a group of 31 students from St Charles Lwanga Junior High School had been returning from their headteacher’s farm when the disaster occurred.

The Accra-based Joy FM reported ASP Zokoiku as saying that the police suspect the boat was overloaded.

David Takah, a brother of the headmaster, told the radio station that the family did not know his whereabouts. All efforts to contact him had failed.

Drowning incidents are common in Ghana, especially in the southern regions, where accidents associated with illegal mining are common.

In October, at least four other young people died when their boat capsized on the River Offin in the Ashanti Region.

Their bodies were pulled from the river after nearly three days of searching for those missing.