51 Students arrested at Koforidua

THE Police at Koforidua have arrested 51 students who engaged in violent street fighting in front of the Normal Technical Institute (NORMAL) on Saturday.

They wielded offensive weapons such as cutlasses, knives, crow bars and stones.

The students, comprising 24 from NORMAL, 24 from Koforidua Secondary Technical School (SECTECH), one from New Juaben College of Commerce (NJUACOCO) and two Junior Secondary School (JSS) students, engaged in the fight, which brought traffic on the Koforidua-Effiduase road to a standstill until police intervened.

Peter Lamptey, a student of NORMAL who jumped through the window of the first floor of the school's hostel to avoid arrest, had a fractured leg and is on admission at the Koforidua St Joseph’s Hospital. Mr Stephen Anyan, the Eastern Regional Crime Officer, said Police were investigating the incident and those implicated would be charged with rioting and causing damage.

He said the incident followed an attack on SECTECH students by those from NORMAL and Koforidua Technical Institute at the Koforidua Sports Stadium during the Inter-Schools athletics competition, on Friday.

Mr Seth Adu, Headmaster of SECTECH, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that on Saturday afternoon, he had information that the students were preparing to avenge an attack on their colleague by students of the two schools.

The headmaster said he warned the students not to leave the school compound. He then drove to the hostel of NORMAL to assess the situation there.

The Headmaster said he did not see any danger signs and was surprised later to learn that the students had gone to attack their counterparts at NORMAL.

He said police action notwithstanding, the school regulations would be strictly applied and students who defied the directive not to leave the compound would be punished.

Mr Freeman Aikins, Principal of NORMAL, expressed shock at the arrest of his students when they were attacked at their hostel.

He said, "NORMAL students took to their heels on seeing the police, yet they were chased and arrested". Mr Michael Okoto, Secretary of the Koforidua Zone Second Cycle School Sports Association (KZSCSSA), giving a background to the tension between SECTECH and NORMAL, said in the 1999, NORMAL was expelled from the association for not paying its dues regularly.

He said because the chairman and secretary of the association at that time were the Headmaster and Sports Master of SECTECH, students of NORMAL had always blamed the latter for denying them the chance to participate in the competition.

He alleged that on Friday, during the competition, some NORMAL students jumped the wall into the stadium to provoke SECTECH students, whose Cadet Corps were serving as security guards for the games.

Mr Okoto said some NORMAL students who entered through the gates were found to be armed with knives and substances suspected to be narcotics and were arrested and kept in a room but some of their colleagues used force to release them and threw stones to disrupt the closing ceremony of the competition.