Jema School Closed Down Over Riot

Jema Secondary School in the Kintampo South District of Brong Ahafo has been closed down indefinitely by the District Security Council (DISEC).

This follows riots by the students in the early hours of Saturday resulting in destruction of school property valued at millions of cedis.

Armed policemen are on a 24-hour duty guard at the school while investigations are on-going to arrest the ring leaders. The students accused the headmaster, Mr. J.F. Amoah of being a tyrant and an "autocrat". They also accused him of collecting unapproved moneys; compelling Muslim Students to attend church services, and collecting moneys for exercise books and uniforms, which he only partially supplied. According to the students, the headmaster collected ?60,000 per student for the school vest, which they said was too expensive and ?30,000 for computer classes which were never organized.

They stated that the headmaster had been managing the school as "his personal fiefdom," adding that the bad blood between him and some members of staff was impeding academic work at the school.

The demonstrators terrorized some workers, chased the watchmen out of the campus and brutalized their colleagues who refused to participate in the action. Mr Amoah, whose house was vandalized and motorbike set ablaze, fled with his family and sought refuge in the house of Mr Yaw Adjei-Duffuor, acting Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister. He told the Times: "My brother, I am even not up to one year in the school, how can I, therefore, do all those things?" Mr Samuel Addai, senior housemaster of the school, said the allegations against the headmaster were untrue, describing them as "baseless, unfounded and a figment of the demonstrators' own imagination."