Lectures halt as UPSA students protest to demand removal of ‘threatening’ fuel station

Lecture halls were empty with students clad in red and black attire scattered all around campus at the University of Professional Studies on Monday morning.

The visibly aggrieved students in unison matched through the school amidst chants and protest slogans, their perturbation; they want the SEL fuel station that shares a wall with the institution shut down and or relocated.

The students who bemoaned Saturday’s tragedy at the Atomic Junction in Madina indicated that they would not sit aloof and watch a repeat of a similar situation hence their protest.

Speaking to Ghanaweb, SRC President of the school, Justice Gaduga, narrated how the unfortunate incident affected over 20 students of the school who were present at the school’s hostel close to the explosion scene. According to him, these students sustained various degrees of injury which could have been worse but for the distance between the two places.

“The explosion that happened at Atomic Junction on Saturday has had ripple effects on our students on campus. Look at how far that filling station and that gas stations are from campus but as we speak, more than 20 students are badly injured how much more the one right behind us? Do we want to wait for 30,000 students to die before we do something about it? Students have been lost from previous experiences, anything can happen and our lives will be lost.”

The building is not even a meter away from the school, it’s too close to our study block. The lives of the students are more important than the profit of one man”. Our students are so badly wounded,” he stated.

He maintained that today’s event precedes Friday’s protest which will go beyond the confines of the school. According to him, that the protest would serve as a wake-up call to the appropriate authorities to take urgent action to resolve the situation as their petitions and concerns prior to this have fallen on deaf ears.

Registrar of the University, Dr. Seidu Mohammed Mustapha, speaking to Ghanaweb explained that the injuries were as a result of a stampede that occurred whilst students were trying to flee for their lives adding that management is putting in the appropriate measures to ensure that the issue is dealt with.

“The Director of the hostels informed me about the injuries that were caused as a result of the stampede. When it happened everybody was rushing out…we are dealing with all these things together.”