Tension at Akro Senior High School following lynching of suspected thief

Correspondence from the Eastern Region

Armed police personnel are stationed on the campus of Akro Senior High School in the Eastern Region as fears of reprisal community attacks heightens.

This is in response to simmering tension on the campus of the School after a suspected thief was lynched Friday night.

A visit by GhanaWeb to the campus Saturday

Read full articlemorning saw students armed with clubs and machetes after a youth group stormed the campus early on in an attempted reprisal attack on the students over the lynching.

Information gathered by GhanaWeb indicated that at about 10:30 pm on Friday, the first suspected thief identified as Odoi Solomon was found loitering around the girls' dormitory.

His presence aroused suspicion from the students who apprehended, attacked, and beat him with clubs until he was rescued by the headmaster and some staff of the school.

Headmaster of the school, Mr. Charles Osom Baah told GhanaWeb that while this was going on, the deceased, Sackitey Emmanuel Kpabitey, a former pantryman at the same school but now doing same work at the Krobo Girls Senior High School, entered the campus demanding the immediate release of Odoi Solomon, threatening to bring thugs to beat them up if they refused.

This he said, infuriated the students who pounced on him as well, beating him until he fell unconscious.

The headmaster asserted that rampant incidents of stealing on campus by unidentified persons placed the students on the alert, fueling their actions.
"Yesterday in the night around 10:30, I was in my house when I heard a lot of shouting from the girls' dormitory so I got there and realized [that] a thief [had] invaded the place and they shouted and the boys got there and they managed to get the person so in fact, they started beating him and we realized that would not be good so we rescued him," narrated the headmaster.

According to him, the school decided to detain the suspect pending the arrival of the police during which the second suspect emerged on the scene.
He furthered: "All of a sudden, we heard this scuffle with a different person about fifty meters away. When we got there, they said another boy entered the school and came and threatened them that if they don't release that boy he's going to bring townfolk to come and beat them up so this infuriated the students."

The headmaster, Mr. Charles Osom Baah expressed regret at incidents of rampant stealing on campus.

The police who arrived on the scene rescued the two including Sackitey Emmanuel Kpabitey who was unconscious and subsequently sent them to the St. Martin De Porres hospital for treatment.

Unfortunately, Sackitey was pronounced dead on arrival while Odoi Solomon is still receiving treatment at the facility.



Reprisal attack

Some thugs from the community reportedly stormed the school Saturday morning to attack the students over the incident but they retreated when they realized the students had outnumbered them.

Odumase District Police Commander, Supt Doris Akua Grant confirmed the incident to GhanaWeb and furthered that security would be maintained on the campus to avert any clashes.

The body of the deceased has been deposited at the mortuary of the St Martin De Porres hospital awaiting autopsy.