General News of Sunday, 7 August 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-08-07UG Violent Clashes: Heavy security presence at Sarbah Hall after clash with Commonwealth Hall
play videoSome of the police reinforcement vehicles can be seen around the Sarbah Hall
A day after there were violent clashes at the University of Ghana, GhanaWeb can report that there is currently heavy police reinforcement at the school.
According to details from Radio Univers, the police have pitched camp at the Mensah Sarbah Hall as a way of quelling a
Read full articlefurther retaliation from their arch-rivals, the Commonwealth Hall.
The two halls have been known to be arch rivals, a situation that is believed to have inspired the violent clashes of the evening of Friday, August 5, 2022.
Further details from the campus station indicated that following the violent clashes, which saw a car completely burnt down and the statue of Mensah Sarbah taken away by students at Commonwealth Hall, the school management called for a meeting between the leaders of the halls.
However, the members of the Commonwealth Hall failed to show up, it added.
“I am told Commonwealth Hall JCR President declined the invitation from senior management. Only their senior hall tutor was there. The meeting happened yesterday evening at WACCBIP,” the source at Radio Univers told GhanaWeb.
The source also added that there were “at least four police officers in front of Commonwealth Hall, about 3 officers at the Volta Hall roundabout, and I just saw 2 at around the Confucius Institute, on that Legon Hall intersection.”
Earlier, the road from Legon Hall Annex B to Sarbah Hall had been blocked, as can be seen in the photos below.
Background:
Earlier, GhanaWeb received multiple reports on a violent clash that occurred between two feuding clashes at the campus of the University of Ghana.
While it was unclear what exactly started the violent clashes, videos in the position of GhanaWeb showed the two factions, on either sides of a street in the evening, pelting each other with stones.
The clash was also said to have happened between the Commonwealth Hall and the Mensah Sarbah Hall; two halls known to have a history of rivalry.
An eyewitness explained that in the process, the statue of John Mensah Sarbah was also destroyed.
He added that while four police patrol vehicles appeared at the scene, they were left powerless and had to only park their vehicles at a distance, watching on as the clashes continued.
“Commonwealth has taken what’s left of the statue away. 4 vehicles of the police just went to park at the UG guesthouse and stayed there aa …no intervention whatsoever. They’re now drawing close to the scene after the thing has ended.
“The students are hooting at them,” he explained.
A vehicle was eventually set ablaze, ending the chaotic scenes caused by the students.
The police are however yet to issue any official statement on the incident.
See the video below:
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