UDS Students boycott Lectures

Wa. Feb. 10, GNA - Students of the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) on Monday began boycotting Lectures to force the authorities to reinstate two of their colleagues who had been suspended from the Central Student' Representative Council (SRC). The Students have further threatened to institute legal action against the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kaku Sagare Nokoe, at the High Court on Tuesday for continuously refusing to meet their demand. They had no other option than to boycott lectures because they had exhausted all internal channels available to them to get the Vice-Chancellor to revoke the suspension of their colleagues, Mr Naab Alphonse and Mr Owusu Aboagye, Central SRC President and Secretary respectively.

Clad in red outfits, the students went on a peaceful demonstration through the main streets of Wa holding aloft placards some of which read, "say no to dictatorship", "Nokoe must go", "we want a substantive Vice-chancellor" and "we need change for a better UDS".


They later converged at the forecourt of the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council where they presented a petition to Mr. David Yakubu, the Regional Coordinating Director for submission to the President.


In the petition the students appealed to the President to intervene in the misunderstanding for sanity to prevail in the various campuses of the UDS to ensure smooth academic work.


They said they were disappointed in the Vice-Chancellor for his "unconstitutional and autocratic action," saying their two suspended colleagues were elected to their positions by the students and it is only the student body that could remove them from office. The petitioners said a letter written by the two students to the Vice-Chancellor which provided grounds for one of the charges levelled against them was only to create the platform for some of their problems to be mitigated and should never constitute an offence to merit suspension.

On November 28 last year, the Vice-Chancellor wrote to the two student leaders, accusing them of misconduct and suspended them from their positions in the SRC.


They were accused of using abusive language in a letter to the Vice- Chancellor, granting press interviews at which they allegedly tarnished the image of the University, unauthorized radio interviews, disruption of academic programme during SRC week celebration and abuse of office.


The two students were also served a letter dated January 19 this year to appear before an Ad hoc disciplinary committee of the University to answer charges of misconduct.