Dispassionate investigations needed to deal with violence on KNUST, UG campuses – Apaak

A member of the Education Committee in Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak has called for dispassionate investigations into the causes of the violence on some of the university campuses especially the University of Ghana (UG) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology (KNUST).

It is only through a thorough investigation that the real brains behind the violence will be unearthed for punishment to be meted out to them, Dr Apaak said.

Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 in relation to the violence at the KNUST campus, Dr Apaak who is Member of Parliament for Builsa South said “We are all worried about what is going on these university campuses…

“We ought to look at them within the context of the trigger factors then, we can look at the aftermath. But we must all condemn these wanton acts violence. Just condemnation is not going to be sufficient, that is why it is important that the authorities of both institutions, at least, allow for a fair and dispassionate investigations so that we can get to the bottom of this.”

Meanwhile, authorities of the KNUST has decided to withdraw the certificates of former students who took part in the riot on campus.

This was revealed by the Head of University Relations, Daniel Norris Bekoe in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3, Friday August 19.

“We will revoke their certificate, we awarded the certificate and alumni caught involved in this will have the certificate revoked,” he said.

The University has also decided to make students at the Katanga Hall pay for the cost of repairing the vehicles that were damaged during the riot.

Mr Norris Bekoe said Katanga students were the ones who stormed the Unity Hall and caused the mayhem during the procession as captured on a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV).

He said “I can confirm that we are picking a lot individuals who took part in it, we have identified some of them and we are going to hand them over to the Police. Some of them came from the University of Cape Coast, Casley Hayford Hall, numbering 40.”

He added “The vehicles belonging to staff will be fixed and Katanga students will bear the cost, nine vehicles.”

As part of efforts to curb the violence, hall week and Student Representative Council (SRC) week celebrations at the KNUST have been suspended indefinitely.

Also, massing up of students leading up to ‘morale’ activities and procession been suspended indefinitely.

Random security checks of persons and vehicles entering and exiting the University campus are to be carried out.

These decision were taken by the the Executive Committee of the University on Friday August 19 following the disturbances that occurred on Thursday 18.

Calm returned to the campus of the KNUST after resident students of University Hall and Unity Hall clashed Thursday night.

It is unclear what sparked the violent clashes but reports say students of University Hall, popularly known as Katanga, embarked on a procession which ended up in the precincts of Unity Hall, popularly known as Conti(nental). The rivalry between the two halls has been age-long.

Students pelted stones at one another, resulting in vandalism of some properties including vehicles parked on campus.

Police moved in to restore calm while the Ashanti Regional Security Council (REGSEC) issued a warning to any persons or group of persons harbouring intentions to embark on reprisal demonstration on campus.

source;3news