Claim: Various news portals say a traditional priest has recently been denied admission to Dzodze-Penyi SHS due to his religious beliefs.
Although such an incident occurred at Dzodze-Penyi SHS, it happened in 2018 and not in 2021 as being reported.
Full text
News reports of two Rastafarians allegedly being denied admission to Achimota Senior School because of their dreadlocks dominated media discussions last week. The report was widely covered by news organizations such as Myjoyonline and GhanaWeb who confirmed the situation.
Another report emerged later that an 18-year-old traditional priest had also been denied admission to Dzodze-penyi Senior High School due to his religious beliefs.
The victim, Galley Felix, reportedly wore a cap after being initiated as a priest but the school’s administrators insist that he removes the cap before he is granted admission.
This report has been published on various news websites including Adomonline and Pulse.com.gh.
Verification
We conducted a google search with the name of the school, restricting our search to news reports and found the same report dating back to November 2018.
Further search on the subject showed that other news portals had also reported it in 2018. These include citinewsroom.com and Yen.com.gh, suggesting that the incident actually happened in November 2018 and not recently as was published by some portals.
The journalist credited to have filed the report for citinewsroom.com, Benjamin Aklama confirmed to Dubawa Ghana that the incident occurred in November 2018.
“The report was originally filed in 2018. The subject of the report, Felix Galley, is a traditional priest whose religion forbids him from removing a blue cap from his head in public. The Dzodze-Penyi Senior High School had initially asked him to remove the cap or forfeit his admission into the school. The school however rescinded its decision after a Citi News report,” he said in a WhatsApp text.
Meanwhile, the said victim, Felix Galley in a phone interview confirmed that the incident occurred in 2018 and that nothing of that nature has happened this year. He said he is currently a student of the school and in his final year.
“It is an old news and that was the first time I got admission to the school. This was resolved later and this time around, there is nothing like that. Yes [it happened in 2018]. They admitted me. Now I am in my last year.”
Conclusion
The media reports that a traditional priest has been denied admission at the Dzodze-penyi SHS due to his religious beliefs is not new. The incident occurred in November 2018.
