SAVELUGU SHS STUDENTS ASKED TO EXERCISE RESTRAINT (PAGE 11)

Story: Zakaria Alhasssan, Savelugu

THE Savelugu/Nanton District Chief Executive (DCE), Alhaji Abubakari Atori, has entreated students of the Savelugu Senior High School who were sent home last week, to exercise restraint for an amicable solution to be found to the current impasse in the school.
He said students should desist from taking the law into their own hands at the least provocation, and should always abide by their school rules and regulations for effective teaching and learning.
‘‘We in this area are already deprived. When your colleagues elsewhere are walking, you need to run and run fast to excel in your exams, instead of engaging in the acts that tend to draw you back from achieving academic excellence,’’ he intimated.
The DCE told the Daily Graphic at Savelugu on Thursday that a nine-member committee that was tasked to investigate the circumstances that lead to the disturbances.
The committee was chaired by Alhaji Yakubu Alhassan, the Assistant Director of Education incharge of Senior High Schools in the Savelugu/Nanton District,
The school was closed down by the District Education Directorate following an assault on the Headmaster, Mr Paul Kally, for ordering the students to discontinue a record dance they had organised without authorisation.
Also, injured were the District Police Station Officer, Chief Inspector Yaw Kaakyire Anane, and his men while the windscreens of the school’s only vehicle were also broken.
According to the officer who is seeking medical attention at the Savelugu Hospital, ‘‘it was by the grace of God that we survived the students’ assault, because we were only four against the hundreds of irate students’.’
He said he and his men had to disguise themselves by removing their reflective uniforms on Saturday night, February 9, 2008, the night of the incident where students had defied several warning shots by his men to scare them.
‘‘And when we realised that, the stone-throwing students were closing in on us, I ordered my men to remove their uniforms and lie down; in fact this, strategy paid off as the students could no more spot us in the dark and therefore, had to turn away,’’ he intimated.
The officer, however, said this was not after the students had pelted them with stones and sticks.
The incident occurred at about 11:30 pm on February 9, after the police had earlier received information that the students were preparing to run riot.
According to Chief Inspector Anane, when they arrived at the scene, the headmaster had already asked the entertainment master to inform the students to stop the function.
He said the students who did not take kindly to the orders by the headmaster, later rallied around and vented their anger by throwing stones at the headmaster’s bungalow and the police personnel.
The officer said it took the intervention of some good-spirited persons to bring sanity to the campus.
He also revealed that about two weeks to the incident, there were some skirmishes to disturb the peace on campus following a similar function by the students.
The officer attributed the situation to a seeming rift between a section of the tutors and the headmaster, for which reason he alleged that some of the masters were instigating the students to embark on such undisciplined behaviour.
No arrest has so far been made yet.