The University Teachers Association (UTAG) has rejected calls on the Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to step aside following a violent protest by the students that led to the shutting down of the school indefinitely.
Students of the University on Monday rioted on the streets of the school against what they say is continuous suppression of their fundamental human rights to freedom of expression and brutishness on the part of the authorities of the university.
The angry students charred over 30 vehicles including the Dean of Students’ and reportedly ransacked the Vice Chancellor’s office, compelling authorities to shut down the school indefinitely on the instruction of the Ashanti Regional Security Council.
Many including the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and the SCR of the school have called on the Vice Chancellor, the Dean of Students and the Public Relations Officer of the school to step aside for an independent investigation to be carried out to ascertain the circumstances leading to Monday’s chaos.
But speaking to Starr Today’s Naa Dede Tetteh, the President of UTAG, Dr Eric Opoku said the students have no moral right to call for the removal of the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Kwasi Obiri-Danso or the Dean of Students.
“The students do not have any right to make any call. Look, the Vice Chancellor and these other principal officers who you mentioned are not under criminal investigations,” he said.
He said if the students insist on the removal of the Vice-Chancellor, they should also be prepared to be suspended until the investigations are concluded since they are partially to blame for the chaotic development.
“The students themselves are also to be held partially responsible for what has happened.
“Then possibly I think that all those students should be rusticated for them to go and sit at home whiles investigations continue. None of them has the right to make…such call,” he said.
According to him, what needs be done “is for all the governing council which the SRC president and the Vice-chancellor are all members to look at ways of solving this problem.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
