Minister expresses concern about crime among students

Sunyani, Sept 09, GNA - Captain Nkrabea Effa-Darteh (rtd), the Deputy Minister of Interior, has expressed concern about the alarming rate of crime among the youth, particularly students in tertiary institutions.

He was addressing the 39th annual delegates congress of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) in Sunyani under the theme "Crime prevention - the role of students."

The Deputy Minister said crime prevention was a collective responsibility of the judiciary, the police and the entire society and called for an urgent collaboration between these institutions to help curtail the high rate of criminal activities in the country.

Capt Effah-Darteh, who is the Member of Parliament for Berekum, appealed to the media to crosscheck information before publishing or broadcasting and join hands with the government in the fight against crime.

Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, noted with concern the rate of indiscipline in tertiary institutions and criminal activities range from indecent dressing, examination malpractices, and use of hard drugs and wanton destruction of school properties to strike actions.

He said since these acts did not augur well for national development, NUGS must compliment the efforts of school authorities through drawing up codes of conduct for students. Mr Baffour-Awuah urged students to collaborate with security agencies by providing information on criminal activities on campuses. Mr Mohammed Amin Anta, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, advised students to get involved in entrepreneurial development on their campuses.

Mr Abubakari Forgor, the National President of NUGS, said the spate of crime had reached alarming proportion among students nation-wide and stressed the need to reverse the trend to accelerate national development.