Kumasi Academy also known as KUMACA is a public, senior high school located in Asokore-Mampong, a suburb of Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Students of Kumasi Academy Senior High School in the Asokore Mampong Municipality of Ashanti Region have been sent home after they stage a protest on Friday over suspected mysterious death in the School. Three students of the school have allegedly died in a suspected food poisoning on the campus.
The number of students from the Kumasi Academy SHS who have lost their lives over suspected food poisoning has risen to four. The latest casualty is a first year science student of the school whose parents have informed authorities of the school of his death.
While students protested over these deaths, they vandalized school properties including two buses. Angry parents also stormed the school to take their wards back home as students protest against school authorities over the development. Police were deployed overnight to ensure calm and also protect lives and properties.
The school authorities informed only the form three students to stay behind because they will be writing their WASSCE exams on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Assistant Headmaster (Academics) of the school, Ernest Wiafe, denied reports that the students died as a result of food poisoning.
“The Municipal Health Directorate has taken over to investigate the cause of the deaths and make it public. It is now too early for anyone to conclude on the cause of the deaths,” he explained.
“The students came individually at different times within the 13 days complaining of illness and visited different hospitals for treatment. The autopsy reports are not out yet but, I will be surprised if it is food poisoning,” he added.
Ernest Wiafe, assistant headmaster (academics) of the Kumasi Academy, has said it is too early to blame the death of four students of the school on food poisoning. Doctors, he said, are carrying out autopsies to ascertain the real cause of the deaths.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ashanti Regional Education Directorate, Cassandra Antwi, confirmed in an interview on Monday, April 3.
“We have a total of four,” she said, adding: “This student, we are told he went home without exeat. He had told his friends that he was going for school fees but after authorities checked it turned out that he was not owing any fees.”
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday April 4, Mr Wiafe said: “So far, calm has been restored in the school and the anxiety among the students has gone down.
“All the four students who have died are their friends and so we need to exercise patience with the doctors as they find out the real cause of their deaths. It will be too early in the day to conclude that it was food poisoning, especially as we are not medical practitioners. And so let us be patient.”
Police also denied food poisoning claim in Kumasi Academy mysterious deaths saga. They confirmed that the autopsy results are yet to be out.
Kumasi Academy is a highly rated school in Ghana, known for its quality education and morals. The school authorities have promised to get to the root of the issue in order to ensure a safe environment for the other students.
