Close this fuel station - UPSA students appeal

The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), has called for the closure and de-commissioning of the SEL Filling station, sited less than three meters away from our university.

Mr. Sydney Quartey, the SRC President of UPSA, told journalists, on Thursday, at a media briefing, in Accra, that a protest letter to the environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed by Dr. Seidu Mohammed Mustapha, the Registrar of UPSA, on April 24, 2016, stated that: “Our protest is because the station poses great danger to residents of the community.”

Mr. Quartey said UPSA was not satisfied with the explanations by EPA that the needed safety measures had been put in place.

He said if measures were not taken to close the fuel station, the leadership of the SRC would organise the students to embark on a number of activities to demonstrate against the situation.

These, he said, included a protest at the EPA and the National Petroleum Agency, as well as the La-Nkwantanang Madina Municipal Assembly.

The letter to the EPA, Mr. Quartey said, stated that the UPSA had a walk-way that served one of its entrances, which was close to the filling station.

The SRC President said several other demonstrations would also be held by the students until the situation was rectified.

“Given the fact that liquefied petroleum gas, the main product of the filling station, is highly inflammable, students would be exposed to grave danger,” he said.

Mr. Quartey stressed on the dangers of the filling station and said the university had 11,000 students who attended lectures day and night, throughout the week.

He said apart from the fact that the fuel station was less than three meters away from the main students’ walkway used by more than 3,000 students daily; there was a 300-seater mosque, which was about five meters from the filling station.

“Several houses, restaurants, a taxi rank, amongst others, also encircle the filling station,” he said.