T'Poly students' case adjourned

Sekondi, June 27, GNA- The case involving 64 students of the Takoradi Polytechnic for rioting with offensive weapons has been adjourned to July 16.

This is the third time they have appeared before the court and have been granted 30 million cedis bail each and have since been reporting to the Takoradi central Police station, twice a week. Their pleas have not been taken.

Police Chief Inspector Joseph Hedidor told the court presided over Mr. Tsatsu Azuma that the Police and the polytechnic authorities had requested the adjournment to enable them to find a lasting solution to the problem.

It would be re-called that the students including six females are facing trial charged with rioting with offensive weapons and engaging the Police in a confrontation on June 1.

Students of Takoradi Polytechnic on May 31, this year, led by executives of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) jointly declared an indefinite boycott of all academic work at the Takoradi Polytechnic campus with effect from Thursday May 31. They also called for the immediate dismissal of the Principal, Dr. Samuel Obeng-Apori and accused him of "being incompetent, arrogant and autocratic".

GNUPS said the boycott was in solidarity with students of the Takoradi Polytechnic and would assist them to boycott an impending examination. They said the publication in the May 23 edition of the Daily Graphic newspaper that students in the school were "a bandit of drunkards, smokers, rapists and sex maniacs, apart from being false had portrayed the incompetence and lack of control over the school as a Principal". They alleged that the principal was abroad and no negotiation had been done about their fees but some management members had allegedly fixed fees ranging between 3.5 million cedis to four million cedis per student.

GNUPS accused the Principal of using duress to compel the SRC vice president to resign and had taken-over SRC functions and aiding and abetting in the mismanagement of the students funds. The union also accused the Principal and Management of the Takoradi Polytechnic of spending SRC funds by sending a student representative to Nigeria for the just ended WAPOGA games at a cost of 12.480 million cedis from the SRC funds. The school has since been closed down indefinitely and a joint Police Military patrol guards the school.