Education Minister, Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh has described as unfortunate brutalities unleashed on students of the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) by some police officers Tuesday.
According to him, the reasons offered by the Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Police Command, ASP Yusif Tanko are unreasonable and hence demanded that the police PRO and one police officer, Supt Klomegah ought to be sacked from the region.
“That police officer called Tanko is not known to be somone who speaks the truth. He is always telling lies and now you want to cover the bad acts by these police officers. We went to the Asokwa police and also to the regional police to enquire and Tanko and Supt Klomegah just enjoyed lying to us that they attacked the students to ensure law and order which was absolutely false. “I am calling on the IGP to make sure that these police officers are transferred. They don’t deserve to be at post in the Ashanti Region,” he said. Over 14 students of KTI have been hospitalised after a standoff with some police officers Tuesday night.
The officers were called in to ward off the students who were said to have been on rampage blocking portions of the Amakom-WAEC road.
They were returning from the Baba Yara Stadium after participating in the Inter-schools competition in the region.
The police officers in their quest to maintain law and order fired gunshots and tear gas when the students resisted and pelted stones at them as they tried to unblock the road. The angry officers reportedly stormed the school’s dormitories vandalising windows and doors and manhandled any student who came their way. However, ASP Tanko, after the attack said students pelted the police officers with stones and smashed the windscreen of police patrol cars.
“There was a confrontation between the students of KTI and some other students, so police went in to try and clam the situation down but the students from KTI were very rowdy so it resulted in police arresting about 11 of them and taken them to Asokwa but in the end police manage to calm down the situation.
“So in the evening when the event came to an end, the students of KTI gathered in front of their school, there is a main road that passes in front and they gathered at a section of it that led to their main gate and blocked the road.” he indicated.
But speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show “Dwaso Nsem” Thursday, Dr Opoku-Prempeh maintained that government is determined to probe the circumstances leading to the mayhem, assuring that whoever is found culpable will be made to face the full rigours of the law.
He condemned the police officers for allegedly firing live bullets in their attempt to arrest the situation adding that the police officers involved must be investigated and appropriate sanctions meted out to them.
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