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UDS Students boycott Lectures
in solidarity of suspended leaders
Wa. Feb. 10, Ghanadot/GNA – Students of the Wa campus of the
University for Development Studies (UDS) on Monday began
boycotting Lectures to force the authorities to reinstate
two of their colleagues who had been suspended from the
Central Student’ Representative Council (SRC).
The Students have further threatened to institute legal
action against the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kaku Sagare
Nokoe, at the High Court on Tuesday for continuously
refusing to meet their demand.
They had no other option than to boycott lectures because
they had exhausted all internal channels available to them
to get the Vice-Chancellor to revoke the suspension of their
colleagues, Mr Naab Alphonse and Mr Owusu Aboagye, Central
SRC President and Secretary respectively.
Clad in red outfits, the students went on a peaceful
demonstration through the main streets of Wa holding aloft
placards some of which read, “say no to dictatorship”,
“Nokoe must go”, “we want a substantive Vice-chancellor” and
“we need change for a better UDS”.
They later converged at the forecourt of the Upper West
Regional Coordinating Council where they presented a
petition to Mr. David Yakubu, the Regional Coordinating
Director for submission to the President.
In the petition the students appealed to the President to
intervene in the misunderstanding for sanity to prevail in
the various campuses of the UDS to ensure smooth academic
work.
They said they were disappointed in the Vice-Chancellor for
his “unconstitutional and autocratic action,” saying their
two suspended colleagues were elected to their positions by
the students and it is only the student body that could
remove them from office.
The petitioners said a letter written by the two students to
the Vice-Chancellor which provided grounds for one of the
charges levelled against them was only to create the
platform for some of their problems to be mitigated and
should never constitute an offence to merit suspension.
On November 28 last year, the Vice-Chancellor wrote to the
two student leaders, accusing them of misconduct and
suspended them from their positions in the SRC.
They were accused of using abusive language in a letter to
the Vice- Chancellor, granting press interviews at which
they allegedly tarnished the image of the University,
unauthorized radio interviews, disruption of academic
programme during SRC week celebration and abuse of office.
The two students were also served a letter dated January 19
this year to appear before an Ad hoc disciplinary committee
of the University to answer charges of misconduct.
GNA
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