It has been reported that at least 30 students of the Islamic Senior High School at Abrepo in the Ashanti Region had to be rushed to hospital after police allegedly spread tear gas on them while they were protesting over frequent road vehicular knockdowns in front of the school.
The students of the school according to reports blocked the road in front of their school (Abrepo Junction -Barekese route) on Monday, 13th June 2022 in the course of their protest, after a vehicle knocked down a female teacher last Friday.
The students have told the press that frequent calls for speed ramps have fallen on deaf ears, leading to students and staff suffering numerous accidents at Abrepo Junction.
According to reports, the police were called in to clear the roadblock and disperse the irate protestors.
In the course of dispersing the students, the police fired tear gas. More than 30 of the students went unconscious and others were left with severe pain as a result of the firing of tear gas at them.
Ambulances of about 6 were however deployed to transport injured students to the hospital.
Calm was restored as police presence in the school has intensified, but some parents were trooping into the school following the incident.
Without excusing what the students did, the Daily Searchlight must continue to express concern about the nature of policing in Ghana, particular in tense situations.
It would seem that in any confrontation between our police and a crowd, even of infants, the police attitude is to go in strong, with might as the first option, against any dialogue.
We believe that if the police had used more tact, the need to deploy the tear gas would have been avoided.
We believe that the methods of policing in Ghana should begin to deploy and employ negotiators, who are able to negotiate a way through tense situations.
Ghana is fast developing a reputation as a credible democracy, and the only way we can maintain and improve on that reputation is to develop credible security and adjudicatory systems.
