General News of Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Source: Kwabena Danso-Dapaah
2018-10-23
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo has stressed the need for all to respect the rights of people and treat them fairly.
Some students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) were brutalized over the weekend by the security men of the institution for holding a vigil without notice to authorities of the institution.
Speaking during the 10th-anniversary celebration and awards night of the Justice For All Programme (JFAP) in Accra last Friday, the President said, Ghana cannot be a nation where some enjoy freedom and justice while others do not.
“There is no greater threat to a free and democratic country than a government that fails to protect its citizens’ freedom and liberty as aggressively as it pursues justice”, the President pointed out.
According to him, human rights and the concept of equality before the law should be a guiding principle reiterating the government’s determination to protect the rights and freedoms of all Ghanaians in the spirit and letter of the country’s Constitution.
Background
The School’s security on Friday [October 19, 2018] pounced on unarmed students who were having a peaceful vigil at the forecourt of the hall in protest of management’s freeze on “morale”, a usual Friday night jamboree in all the halls at the school.
The University in a communique signed and posted both the Continental Hall and University Hall Management asked the student body to cease their usual ‘Friday Night Morale’ as the school has suspended the activity.
A group of security men who were said to be acting based on orders from the authorities, allegedly manhandled students who reportedly flouted the rules and held a mini vigil and in the process one student sustained severe head injuries, bleeding profusely
The injured student was immediately admitted to the KNUST Hospital for treatment on Friday evening, some students on campus told reporters.
Eleven (11) other students, including one former student of KNUST, who was said to be part of the demonstrators, were reportedly overpowered by the KNUST security men, who sent them to the Tech Police Station where they were caged.