Agogo State College Closed After Students’ Riot, 22 Arrested

The Agogo State Senior High School (SHS) has been closed down for one week, following students rioting on Sunday night.

The students of Agogo State embarked on a demonstration and vandalised school property running into thousands of Ghana cedis.

Their anger followed frequent interruption of electric power supply to the school, which they said has contributed to denying them water supply for five days.

For five days, there has not been power supply to the school and so the students said they have not been able to pump out water for use.

The students were said to have destroyed the school’s streetlights, vandalized school buses, classrooms, assistant headmasters office, air conditioners among others.

Addressing the student community on Monday, the Asante Akyem North District Director of Education, Ernest Kojo Afari, said the decision to shut down the school is to allow authorities time to repair some of the properties destroyed.

“As a result of the massive destruction that took place last night, it has become necessary to close down the school. The closure had become a necessary option for the following reasons: You destroyed all the streetlights; we need time to fix them. You destroyed plumbing installations, electricity transmissions have been interrupted. And all other things you have destroyed we need at least three to four days to fix them,” he said.

Meanwhile, the District Director of Education for Agogo, Kojo Asare after a meeting with the school’s management has closed down the Agogo State SHS for a week to fix damaged properties.

In an interview with Joy FM, Kojo Asare also disclosed that 18 female and 4 males students are currently in grips of the Police to assist with an investigation. He added that all the 22 students have all been granted bail and police have taken their statements.

However, the over 4000 students of the Agogo State SHS who have since been sent home are to return to School on Saturday, October 6, 2018.

Background

15 students of the school were earlier arrested after they destroyed properties of the school during a demonstration exercise on Sunday.

The protest, which was led by female students has left several school property including school buses damaged.

Police Officers were quickly deployed to maintain order at the school.

Chief Executive for the Asante Akyem North District, Francis Oti Boateng, told Citi News the District Security Council will hold a stakeholder meeting today [Monday] on the issue.

“By the grace of God, everything is under control. The students were agitating over their lights that went off around 10:00 pm and also about water shortages. We met them and explained to them that, even if they are facing challenges there are procedures to follow, but I can assure you that everything is under control,” he said.

The school had earlier been in the news after over 40 students were displaced after a fire gutted one of the dormitories in the school in January 2018.

The headmaster of the school, Boakye Yiadom, told Citi News the incident occurred around “8.30 pm when students were at prep.”

“Some of them went out and saw smoke coming out of one of the dormitories, so they alerted teachers and us together with students rushed to the scene. Others too called the Fire Service, so they rushed to the scene,” he narrated.

“Everything in the room got burnt including government textbooks, chop boxes, trunks, and a few cedis.”