Gbevlo-Lartey vindicated

National Security Secretariat has once again pulled down a security post at the entrance of the University of Ghana, Legon for obstruction of traffic.

The National Security Council in February this year pulled down the Okponglo structure which was to serve as a toll booth and a security post for the university.

LI-Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey had justified his actions by insisting that the toll booth was going to cause unnecessary and unwanted traffic at the Okponglo traffic intersection on the Tetteh Quarshie-Madina Highway.

When LI-Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey was removed from office, a section of the people led by the opposition NPP said the man was being penalised for instructing the National Security apparatus to pull down the Okponglo gate of the university.

With the demolition of the Okponglo booth once again, it leaves no shred of doubts that the action of the LI-Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey in February this year had the blessing of the flag staff house.

The latest action shows that if the University of Ghana authorities thought they were going to have a field day to cause much more nuisance to the public then they are mistaken. For in Mr. Yaw Donkor, the successor to Gbevlo-Lartey, the opposition certainly has a hard nut to crack.

National Security made it clear in February that its action was not meant to stop the tolls being collected by the university authorities, but to ensure law and order as the Okponglo entrance of the university was getting choked in view of chaotic quarrels between the university tickets or tolling staff and members of the public some of whom were taking their words to the university JHS.

The National Security Council later in a statement said it had ordered the school authorities to halt the reconstruction of the post and demanded an environmental assessment report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

But the university, in response, denied receiving any such directive from the National Security and clarified that the structure was not a toll booth as it was widely reported in the media.

A security expert at Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Center, Dr. Kwasi Aning, has called on President John Mahama to intervene in what he is described as “a totally unnecessary” scandal between the National Security and the university.

He said the situation was a blot on the country’s reputation, adding that it was time for other institutions, including the President, to resolve the matter.