Four Ghanaian students have been arrested in the United States (US) for reportedly forging high school transcripts to gain admission to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Their preliminary hearings have been set for September 24.
The Northampton County court records indicate that the students from Ghana, Otis Opoku, Evans Oppong, Cyrilstan Nomobon Sowah-Nai, and Henry Dabuo are being held on charges of forgery and theft of services.
Their arrest comes after Lehigh University Police Department (LUPD) Detective Lieutenant David Kokinda filed criminal complaints against three of the students on September 6. The complaint against the fourth student, Evans Oppong, is still being processed.
The investigation began when Lehigh’s Vice Provost of Admissions and Financial Aid, Dan Warner, raised concerns about the legitimacy of a transcript submitted by Jude Dabuo, Henry Dabuo’s older brother, who had been admitted to the university for the upcoming semester.
Unusual markings, formatting, and spelling errors on the document led the Admissions Office to rescind Jude Dabuo’s admission and investigate his younger brother’s credentials.
Further inquiries revealed similar discrepancies in the applications of the other three Ghanaian students. The four students are currently being held on $100,000 bail.
Prosecutors say the students submitted falsified high school transcripts to Lehigh University’s Admissions Office, inflating their grades to secure their places at the prestigious private research institution.
According to court documents, Opoku, a student since 2022, received financial aid totalling $212,933, while Sowah-Nai and Dabuo, who both started in 2023, were awarded financial aid worth $127,213 and $129,244, respectively.
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Friends of the students have launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds for their legal defence, including bail reduction, commissary expenses, and attorney fees.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has urged Ghanaian students to explore educational opportunities in the United States of America, saying “it is one of the greatest nations to have higher education.”
Speaking at the Education USA College Fair in Accra, organised by the U.S. Embassy in Ghana, the Education Minister said USA universities would challenge students, broaden their knowledge, and make them critical thinkers.
Adutwum urged the students to take advantage of scholarship opportunities and apply to as many foundations that offer scholarships as possible adding it would help parents who could not afford to get more resources to relieve them of the burden of United States education in terms of cost.
“I hope that they will come back to Ghana after their education to contribute their quota to the transformation of the country.
“American graduates return to their country, and they do some good things for Ghana and for humanity,” he said.
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