Bawku, April 8, GNA - Students of Bawku Senior High School (BSHS) and Bawku Senior High Technical School (BSHTS) in the Upper East Region on Saturday fought during which 20 students were injured and property destroyed. Forms one and two students of the two schools have been asked to go home and a committee has been set up to investigate the cause of the fight.

Narrating the incident to the Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo, on his arrival at Bawku to assess the situation the Municipal Coordinating Director, Mr. Yakubu Alhassan Abubakar, told the Regional Minster that at about 1000 hours on Saturday a tutor from the BSHS reported to the police that the students were engaged in a fight and security personnel were sent to the school. He said the students renewed the violence at about 1300 hours after security personnel had left the scene and had to be called back.

Mr Abubakar said the injured were taken to the Quality Health Care and Government hospitals in Bawku where 12 of them were treated and discharged.

Mr. Abubakar said in the students destroyed school property including a bore hole, school gate, electrical installations, workshop equipment, air conditioners, louver blades, a mosque, goal post and roofing sheets. He said it is being alleged that the quarrel ensued between a male student of BSHTS who had gone to the campus of BSHS for a dance with a girl friend from that school.

The student of the BSHTS was beaten which did not go down well with his colleagues who went back to their school and returned to BSHS to retaliate.

The Headmaster of the BSHS and the Principal of BSHTS, Mr. Bismark Kpuuli and Alhaji Urmar Alhassan, described the situation as unfortunate and said they had been living together for the past seven years without any fight. They pledged to work hard to ensure that the students in both schools live peacefully.

Mr. Woyongo, addressing the students, expressed shock over the incident and said as students they were supposed to be the future leaders and not to get themselves involved in petty squabbles. He said Bawku was volatile and everything in the area could trigger conflict and warned them that they would be punished if they continued destroying school property. He directed that the Architecture Engineering Service Limited to assess the cost of damage to school property and the students made to pay.

Mr. Woyongo said his administration would not countenance school demonstrations and strikes that lead to destruction of school property. He said his administration would help the Municipal Directorate of Education to enforce discipline in schools in the region and said the area needed more infrastructure and the few should not be destroyed. Captain Frank Gyeibe-Abrokwah of the Airborne Force who is commanding the Bawku Detachment, urged management of the two schools not to hesitate to report students who start violence to the security agencies. He said destruction of property and the injuries sustained by the students could have been averted if the security personnel were informed on time.