Kumasi Girls SHS students claim police and military team assaulted them during riots

Some students at Kumasi Girls’ High School were reportedly assaulted by a joint police and army team deployed to the school to restore calm during the riots.

It comes after students reportedly went wild on Monday night after being denied a mid-term break.

The Ghana Education Service (GES) previously issued a statement ordering school authorities to take action as part of measures to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Luv News investigations revealed that students destroyed school property.

One of the students who was only identified as Nana telling someone about the incident over the phone was heard crying as she said, “The teacher brought in soldiers and police. They beat us and stepped on us, I can’t walk.

“They arrived around 8:30 pm-9pm. They entered the dormitory with sticks. Some people even passed out and were taken away, ”she said sobbing.

Another student also claimed that they were beaten, “because they refused to comply with the directive to stay on campus.”

According to her, “there is not enough food in the school, but they say they will not let us go home… the soldiers and police have beaten up many of us.

The school administration has yet to comment publicly on the matter.

Meanwhile, Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei Mensah, commenting on the incident, said he was unaware of the alleged assaults on students.

“I was not informed about this, maybe I will find out from the regional police commander, according to the briefing given to me this morning, I have not heard of any assault.” , did he declare.

“We asked security to go there to keep the peace and order, so now the place is quiet.”

Talk to JoyNews, he said the problem with students sometimes is that “when you want to stop them from doing what they want, at the end of the day someone will say I was assaulted, even if you push someone to go back, they will say you assaulted the person.

“But I will go there and witness it myself if it is true that a student has been assaulted and to what extent,” he said.

Mr. Osei Mensah noted that the directive was in the best interests of the students, “so that they do not go out and come in contact with the virus and this is where the disagreement started between the students and the students. school authorities “.

“In addition, the Ghana Health Service, observing the speed at which the Delta variants of Covid are spreading, also believes that it will be better for students to stay in school,” he said. JoyNews’ Nana Yaw Gyimah.

Stressing the need for the directive, the regional minister quoting that “if you go to Asanteman, we have several cases of covid there, and one person can just bring it in and spread it throughout the school.”

However, he assured that “we will speak to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Health Service to find common ground for all students.”

According to him, “a number of people (security personnel) were left in the school to educate the student on the need” to be law-abiding and to listen to management, then if there are changes, they alert them “.

“We didn’t need to put so many security personnel there because sometimes it’s so scary,” he noted.