4 students of Zebilla Senior High School remanded over riots

Four students of Zebilla Senior High Technical School in the Bawku West Municipality of the Upper East Region have been remanded into Police Custody by a Bawku Circuit Court.

The students together with three others were accused of rioting, causing unlawful damage and disturbing of Public peace.

The decision of the court to remand the students followed the Prosecution’s request suggesting that the release of the accused students may interfere with the investigation.

According to the Police, about fifteen more students who returned to the school later on Sunday evening to mobilize the students’ body against the school authority are wanted.

The Presiding Judge Prosper Delove Gomashie then remanded the four into Police Custody until Monday, August 10.

Three other students detained on Sunday have their parents responding to calls to stand surety for their release.

Meanwhile, calm has returned to the school with personnel from the Ghana Police Service stationed at vantage points across the campus to ensure peace.

BACKGROUND

Some students of the Zebilla Senior High Technical School( Zebilla Sectech) vandalized school property as well as the property of the headmaster over the seizure of their mobile phones by school authorities.

The students, all third-years, went on the rampage on Saturday 25 July at about 9:30 pm, destroying school vehicles and other school property in protest against the seizure of their phones and punishment being meted out to them for possessing the phones and charging them through illegal electrical connections

The enraged students sent teachers and other workers fleeing for their lives as they pelted stones and wielded sticks and clubs which were meant for whipping the teachers.

The Military had to be called in to quell the riots as attempts to dissuade them failed. Warning shots were fired and the rampaging students fled.

Unable to escape through the school exit, they eventually pulled down parts of the school fence wall and escaped.

The Headmaster Richard Ayabilla Akumbas had his Private car and that of his wife vandalized; he had stormed the boys' dormitory to stop illegal connections from which the students were charging their phones.

Some school property vandalized include: a PTA Toyota Hilux, the school bus, a new digital school notice board, fluorescent bulbs, louvre blades of the dining hall, veronica buckets and stands, tables and chairs, the school tricycle( motorking), motorbikes of some teachers, shops, the school sound system, ceiling fans, students notice boards and streetlights.

Some of the ring leaders of the riots have been arrested and are in police custody. The headmaster expressed regret at the conduct of the final year students who are currently writing their final examination.