At Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, US, four Ghanaian students were accused of stealing services, forging acquisition of services, and uttering falsified writings. Consequently, the kids were arrested by the Northampton County Corrections Department and expelled by the school administration.
The accused Students, Evans Oppong, Henry Dabuo, Cyrilstan
Nomobon Sowah-Nai, and Otis Opoku, were indicted and arranged before the
Magisterial District Court on September 9, 2024. The preliminary hearings
scheduled for September 24 are still pending.
On September 6, when the arrests took place, University
Police Department (LUPD) Detective Lieutenant David Kokinda reportedly filed
criminal complaints against three of the students. The fourth student, Evans
Oppong, is the target of a persistent grievance.
The prosecution claims that the students faked their high
school records and inflated their marks to get into the prestigious private
research university by submitting them to the Lehigh University Admissions
Office. According to court documents, Opoku, a student since 2022, received
financial aid totaling $212,933, while Dabuo and Sowah-Nai, who both started in
2023, received financial aid totaling $129,244 and $127,213, respectively.
Vice Provost of Admissions and Financial Aid at Lehigh, Dan
Warner, stated that Jude Dabuo, Henry Dabuo's older brother, who had been
accepted for the upcoming semester, produced a transcript that cast doubt on
its authenticity, leading to the investigation. The Admissions Office canceled
Jude Dabuo's acceptance and looked into the matter because of the document's
odd annotations, formatting, and spelling errors.
With a $100,000 bail, the four students are being held
presently. There isn't a lawyer assigned to their case as of yesterday September
16th.
Friends and colleagues
have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for their defense, which
includes attorney bills, commissary costs, and reducing bond.
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| GoFundMe Page in support of the accused |
Per reports, Opoku and Oppong met the requirements of having a GPA of at least 3.6 in order to be listed on Lehigh's Dean's List in recent semesters.
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