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Committee Presents Report on Clashes between
Bawku Schools
Bolgatanga, June 11, Ghanadot/GNA - A
committee the Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark
Woyongo, set up to investigate clashes between
students of the Bawku Technical Institute and the
Bawku Senior High School (BSHS) has presented its
findings to the him.
The clashes, which occurred on
April 05, led to the destruction of property
belonging to the two schools and students from both
schools sustained injuries.
Its term of reference was to
determine the immediate and remote causes of the
disturbances, find out perpetrators, assess and
quantify the extent of damage caused to property,
find out whether there were casualties and who were
responsible.
It was to recommend measures and
ways of preventing future occurrences.
The committee found that
properties of both schools were destroyed by
students from the two schools. Property destroyed
belonging to Bawku Technical stood at 8,943.00 and
BSHS, 1,078.98 Ghana cedis.
The Committee said the initiators
of the disturbances were six students from the Bawku
Technical Institute.
It named them as Maurice, a second
year Plumbing student, Edward Kodabalogo, a first
year Plumbing student, Rashid Bukari, a second year
Electrical student.
The rest are Kadri Osman, Painting
and Decorations student, Foster Ayamga, a third year
Auto student and Sani Mohammed a second year Motor
Vehicle Mechanics student.
The committee also found that some
students from BSHS were also involved in retaliatory
attacks.
They include Abdul Samed Mahama a
third year student, Denis Ayamga, a first year
Visual Arts student and Awinaba Sulemana Abdula
Ganim, a second year Visual Arts student.
The rest are Badiwonehit
Yizanbazor John, a third year Business student and
Simon Zong and Ayimolga, first year Business
students.
The Committee recommended that Maurice Kagua, Foster
Ayamga, Edward Kodabalgo, Kadrio Oman and Rashid
Bukari of the Bawku Technical Institute be summarily
dismissed for their active role in the clash.
Abdul Saamed, Danis Ayamga,
Awinaba Sulemana Abdul-Ganim, Ayamolga Samson,
Badiwomehit Yizanbazor John and Simon Zong of the
BSHS are to be suspended for one month each and
should be dismissed from the boarding house for
stripping Nsoh Raymond naked during the clash.
A second year Home Economics
student of BSHS and Nsoh Raymond of Bawku Technical
Institute should also be suspended for one month
each and dismissed from the boarding house for
sitting together at the BSHS common market at an odd
hour.
The findings recommended that
Guidance and Counselling activities of both schools
should be intensified while entertainment programmes
of the two schools should close at the same time.
School rules and regulations
should be adhered to in the two schools particularly
during the evening.
The committee said school authorities should draw
the attention of the security agencies at anytime
there were rumours of an attack on each other.
Both schools should be surcharged
for the cost of the damage done and there should be
occasional surprise checks in dormitories to look
for offensive weapons and teachers who were
scheduled to be on duty on the day of the clash
should be reprimanded for negligence.
The report said school authorities
should have confidence to query tutors who fail to
perform their duties. Senior Masters should make
sure that masters who are put on duty really work
and ensure that their weekly reports are up to date.
The Upper East Regional Coordinating Council decided
not to dismiss the five students of the Bawku
Technical Institute as proposed by the committee and
said the decision was to ensure that the said
students’ future were protected.
They would however be suspended
for one year each after which they would be
readmitted to continue with their studies.
The Regional Minister said the
council was satisfied with the committee’s findings
and asked that the recommendations be implemented to
the letter by the school authorities and other
agencies to which the assignment had been given.
Mr. Woyongo said Bawku currently
was volatile and the government was doing its best
to calm down the situation and would not therefore
allow students to fight over baseless issues.
“Why should we allow parents in
town to be fighting whilst at the sometime the
children are also fighting?” he asked.
The committee said there was no
remote cause of the clash. It established that the
immediate causes were that two students of the Bawku
Technical Institute fought on the grounds of BSHS
apparently over a girl friend.
This angered the BSHS students who
did not take kindly to the students from another
school using their compound as a theatre for
violence.
The BSHS students therefore chased
them out and at one stage pelted them with stones.
On reaching their campus, they also mobilized their
colleagues and went to the Bawku Senior High School
borehole and attacked students there.
The BSHS victims reported the
incident to their compatriots who also organized and
went to the boreholes but unfortunately for them did
not meet the Bawku Technical Institute Students.
However, on their return to
campus, they spotted a Bawku Technical student
chatting with a girl from BSHS and assaulted her.
GNA
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