Law students pelted officers with stones – Police

The Police Service has explained they used water cannon and other forms of force on the demonstrating law students in order to disperse them after they started pelting officers with stones.

In a statement, the police said the law students also prevented deputy attorney general Godfred Yeboah Dame from exiting his office during the Monday protest.

The Police have come heavy attack for what some have described as the excessive use of force on the students who are demanding reforms at the Ghana School of law.

The President of the Ghana School of Law, Jonathan Alua, and nine other law students were arrested but were subsequently released.

In an attempt to present a petition to the President at the Jubilee House in Accra, the law students were met with resistance from police officers, who claimed they had no permission to enter the presidency.

Meanwhile, the governing New Patriotic Part has condemned the use of force by the Police on the protesting law school students.

A statement signed by the General Secretary of the governing party, John Boadu, stated that “while we accept the position of the Police that the demonstrators may have strayed outside the law, and were disrupting the normal usage of the public thoroughfare that passes in front of Jubilee House, we are, however, not convinced that the Police had to resort to such use of force and crowd controlling techniques to manage a crowd, mainly of students.

“The police must realize that, just like every other Ghanaian, they are also subject to law and ought to give confidence to the populace at all times that, in applying the law, they do so fairly to all manner of persons.”