Students threaten court action against Gyimah

Nyankpala-Tamale N/R (Chronicle) -- Trouble appears to be terrifyingly high on top of the roof of the most mentioned man in the country today, Mr. Daniel Charles Gyimah, chairman of the University of Development Studies (UDS) Council.

Media watchers believe the man must be regretting citing the students of the university as dissenters from the former President Rawlings?s award of a doctorate degree which was to have been conferred on March 19, this year.

The Students Representative Council (SRC), with the full support of the whole student body at the Nyankpala campus of the UDS, has threatened legal action against the university council chairman, should he fail to come out with the real reasons why the special congregation and award ceremony were cancelled and accept blame for the subsequent indelible shame he had brought upon the university and the country as a whole.

The students demanded also from Mr. Gyimah, a proof of the so-called letter or petition, names and signatures of the 472 students within three working days, starting from yesterday.

The students demanded further that, if the chairman failed to provide the said petition and the 472 names and signatures of the students, he would be forced to resign, since his short-term in office had brought nothing but great disrepute to the university community.

These threats were contained in a release issued and signed by the SRC President of the UDS, Mr. Naporo Abraham, yesterday, at a press conference held at the Great Hall of the UDS in Tamale, to express the students? dissatisfaction about the chairman?s assertion.

According to the release, the SRC received the news about the cancellation of the programme not only with disappointment, but also with insult, considering the fact that an alleged action of a section of the SRC was mentioned as being one of the causes for the cancellation of the event.

It emphatically cautioned Mr. Gyimah not to try to underestimate the SRC in that matter, since they were prepared to resist any form of ?co-modification? from him.

?The stand of the SRC (Nyankpala Campus) on this issue of the cancellation of the honouring of the former President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Jerry John Rawlings, and the first Vice Chancellor of UDS, Prof. Bening, is very clear. From objective point of view, we the SRC have not taken an entrenched position, but we would like to state that neither of the parties (the alleged 472 students alongside the council chairman on one side and the university council on the other side) is yet to blame.

Rather, we would wait patiently until some basic facts of the matter are provided, and these we expect from no strange source but the university council chairman, who had categorically stated a proof of petition written and signed by 472 students, indicating their displeasure over the special congregation under ?the pretext of insecurity,? the release stated.

The press conference, which attracted more than half the student population, was characterized by shouting, drumming , dancing and comments from the crowd like; ?He is a big liar,? ?He must resign or we chase him out,? and ?He must provide the list,? among others.

The students commended the general public for the role they have played so far, saying that it was devoid of confusion.