Twelve foreign students of the All Nations University, Koforidua, have been dismissed for alleged criminal acts and poor academic performance.

A letter signed by the Registrar, E.K. Oware, said the students were fired for "engaging in gang-related crime, violent activities and poor academic performance."

The affected students were reading various courses from Computer Science, Business Administration, Electronics and Communications Engineering, as well as Computer Science.

The university said many of these students were arrested about three weeks ago when the Eastern Regional Police Command mounted an operation on the hide-out of suspected criminals within the New Juaben municipality upon a tip-off.

Among the items found during their arrest were a pistol and laptop computers.

The Regional Police Commander, George Anko-Bil, told the Times that the police operation did not target foreign students but "a swoop on areas where criminals were hiding and attacking people in the night."

Mr Anko-Bil advised the public to embrace the neighbourhood watch committee concept to help curb crime.