Former students of KNUST have catalogued abuses students suffer which triggered violent protest Monday.
A seven-page press statement by the ‘Concerned Fellows of Kantanga Hall’ said KNUST lecturers are known to cane students.
The statement submitted links to video evidence of caning of some students including females. Some believe the caning was light-hearted and jovial.
But the students who are former residents of Katanga Hall maintain, the practice of caning is well known and ‘not surprising’.
The students recalled, all males within a block at Katanga Hall were once ordered onto a pitch and directed to kneel in the rain.
It was punishment for singing ‘ jama’ songs and allowing ‘infiltration’ by continuing students who do not reside on the main campus, the statement further alleges.
KNUST has become a ghost town after the Ashanti Regional Security Council imposed a curfew and shut down the school indefinitely.
While media reports have linked the disturbances to the decision of the university to convert the male halls into mixed halls, the students have said the Monday protest was about a culture of oppression.
Photo: KNUST students have alleged, school authorities threaten to revoke accomodation status of students or withold their results as a way of punishing dissent.
The students say as important stakeholders in the second largest university in Ghana, their views are not taken into consideration by the university authorities led by Vice-Chancellor Prof. Obiri Danso who is facing calls to resign.
The protest which has gained national attention and government intervention has seen the students venting in the media.
A student has said duly elected hall executives not favourable to school authorities were removed from office and replaced by first-year students.
The concerned fellows of Kantanga Hall criticised the University for shaming and sanctioning four female students for accommodating males in their rooms at odd hours. They wondered how the university would find that offensive after converting the previously male hall into a mixed one.
The university has been on a collision course with students following attempts to halt and ban ‘jama sessions’ on campus – a more than 50-year-old practice popularly called ‘morale’.
ON THE 22nd OF OCTOBER 2018.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Press, fellow Ghanaians, we the Concerned Katangees (Fellows) have followed with great concern the unfortunate disturbances on the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on Monday October 22, 2018 that has led to the closure of the University. As stakeholders in the affairs of the University and especially Katanga Hall, we were duty bound to make a statement whilst we await a formal one from the Alumini Association (the Association). We would also use this opportunity to serve a rejoinder to debunk a Press Statement from “University Management” (assuming they are who we think they are), which contains salacious misrepresentations and outright falsehoods designed as always, to throw dust in the eyes of well- meaning Ghanaians and to malign anything KATANGA.
Before we go further, we take this opportunity to reprove the damage caused to University and private property on Monday. We also wish our brothers who were assaulted by the University Security staff and those suffering nightmares from being needlessly put behind bars a speedy recovery so that they can go back to their avocations. We are committed to help the University in any shape or form to restore the damage and have already made overtures to reputable firms in this regard shoud the University call on us.
Whilst we are disappointed at the turn of events, we dare say from our years and history of student activism, are not surprised. The Association has been absolutely clear in all their press outings and petitions to the President of the Republic (His Excellency, Nana Ado Dankwa Akuffo-Addo), Chancellor of the University (His Royal Highness, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II), the Council of State and the Minsters responsible for Education that, University authorities have unleashed a reign of abuse, intimidation and terrorism with the ultimate goal of killing student activism especially in Katangees. Unfortunately, their calls for intervention have largely not received resposnes from those who were petitioned and who have the power to put an end to the series of attacks on defenseless students. Their Press Release of the 5th of September available at https://www.classfmonline.com/1.11818296 speaks to some of these issues which they duly brought to the attention of the nation.
To start off, we wish to make it abundantly clear that KNUST does not belong to VC Obiri-Danso and his apologists. It belongs to Ghana. There have been many VCs before him and many would follow. It appears the students ultimately lost all confidence in the ability of state security and the justice system to protect them and took matters into their own hands. We have had the pleasant opportunity of associating with current students and their leaders in diverse ways and can vouch for their integrity and respect for the rule of law and due process. Those students would never resort to any underhand activities to fight a just cause. The University should own up to its own failures and stop pointing fingers. Monday, October 22, 2018 is indeed a day of national disgrace and an indelible scar on the image of KNUST. And for this, the authorities in charge must be held accountable. We are therefore demanding that;
In setting the records straight for the benefit of the nation and those who do not know, we now submit as follows;
the hall), to vacate their rooms and congregate on the parade grounds in the hall because they were all singing Jama songs and it was the suspicion that they had been infiltrated by continuing students. These students were made to kneel down on the parade grounds at a time when it was raining and warned not to speak to anyone about their treatment or risk losing their rooms. Yes University students being made to kneel down in the rain. It is not surprising because lecturers of KNUST have been known to cane students. https://ugfile.com/knust-students-caned-by-lecturer/
anybody attack the security post or barracks, and so we dare the University again to produce the evidence to back their claim. In fact, it turns out that there was an Angel FM journalist who followed the incidents all through the, catalogued the events and was brutalised too. Security personnel reportedly confiscated the camera of this journalist, but he managed to capture a lot of the incidents on audio and video tape that is currently in the possession of radio stations in Kumasi. https://mynewsghana.net/knust-security-men-beat- angel-fm-reporter-filmed-brutality-students/
avowed position that Katangees are somewhat savages, it should have made them bring the whole world to the hall to see for themselves the purported mayhem that we were visiting on the hall but no! It is worth pointing out that the fire occurred to parts of the rooms facing the courtyard within the hall and therefore it could only have been started by someone who had access into the hall. For those who don’t know, to keep out the “unwanteds” from the hall starting from this academic year, the hall can only be accessed by residents or authorised persons because the University has installed card access systems at the entrance, has the hall riddled with CCTV and has mobile security guards always stationed at the front and at the porters lodge. It is also worth mentioning that the University had previously blocked all fire exits to the hall leaving only the porters lodge as an escape route for the over 1000 students in the hall. Who cares about health and safety in a University of Science & Technology! We dare the University to respond to the matters we have raised and bring evidence in the form of CCTV to point to the real culprits in the setting of this fire. The lies would not stick!
Why are they not organizing a proper press conference so that their lies can be cross examined in the full glare of the media? Why resort to the monologues of a press release? You know they are lies don’t you? We dare you to hold a press conference or arrange a joint platform where we would present our sides for the neutrals to judge. Truth stands!
Two:-
Where were the police or the Security on Monday morning? They were on hand at the drop of a hat to brutalise students previously but when damage was being perpetrated, they were nowhere to be found. Was that a deliberate ploy by you to bring in rented hoodlums to cause damage and so you could pin it on the students? Where were you on the day? You are the administrators of the University paid at public expense to do just that and like the cowards that you have proven to be, you abandoned ship so that your surrogates could cause havoc for you to pin on the Association. Truth stands!
To conclude, we affirm that we remain in the service of oppressed students nationwide in keeping with the spirit of Katangeeism that has been passed down to us since 1963. We rest not and so Katanga and Katangeeism would not die. As Elie Wiesel said, “there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest” We owe this to our hall, our country and to a future of leaders who are free and not cowed by bullying and victimisation at an institution which is supposed to the cradle of academic learning.
We hereby state that we encourage Ghanaians to scrutinise this statement, make enquieries as to the truth or otherwise of the matters stated herein; from students and members of the KNUST community. We particularly want Ghanainas to directly put questions to the University about what we have stated herein so they would give you a response beyond the monolgues they are using the hide the truth. May you be the judges of low depths to which KNUST has sunk under VC Obiri Danso. We must not allow this to continue.
We Rest Not – No Tension!
CONCERNED KATANGEES
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