NORSU condemns political clashes in Tamale

Kumasi, May 29, GNA - The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) branch of the Northern Region Students Union (NORSU), has condemned the reported clashes between the youth wings of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Lamashegu and Zogbeli, all suburbs of Tamale on Sunday, May 23. The union said there could hardly be any justification for or a rationalisation of "such dastardly acts of backwardness".

A press statement issued in Kumasi on Thursday and signed by Alhassan Fariham, President of the KNUST branch of NORSU, said it gave them cause to wonder why at the least sign of provocation "our people misperceive violence as the most patent way of pressing their grievances."

"It is imperative for us to realise that we, as a small group of people cannot hold the whole nation hostage and that Ghanaians have no time to waste on us."

The statement pointed out that these frequent clashes had drawn the clock of development of the people of the north backwards and it was about time the whole issue was squarely confronted.

NORSU noted that the sustenance of the country's democratic process hinged on political parties who therefore ought to do enough to protect the fragile peace in the already volatile Dagbon area from being upset by individuals with spurious intentions.

The statement charged the leadership of the various political parties in the Northern Region to do enough to convince the people that they had their welfare at heart.

It asked northerners as a people to realise that no army could stop an idea and that this new millennium marked an epoch of peace and therefore the perennial resort to violence was simply out of tune with the modern scheme of things.

NORSU called on the Northern Regional Security Council to speedily review the decision to ban all out-door political activities in the Tamale metropolis as it smacked of rashness, adding that government should rather be seen to be systematically marching towards the identification of wrong-doers, isolating them to face the due process and ultimately letting the axe drop where it might.

The statement admonished the government to boldly come out and bring the perpetrators to book as her continuous show of leniency had been taken for granted.