The Vice Chancellors of Ghana have taken strong exception to the invasion of the University of Ghana by the National Security Coordinator, Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd) and his ‘boys’, leading to the demolishing of a security post at the Legon campus.
The Vice Chancellors have described the action of the National Security capo as lawless because it did not follow due process.
The group insisted that the kind of [conducive environment required for effective teaching and learning at the university had been breached with the Rambo’ style demolishing of the security post, which was to be used for the collection of the controversial road tolls at Legon.
The VCs acknowledged that though government showed disapproval Of the tolling of the roads through a message from die Chief of Staff at the Presidency – that the administration was ready to pick up the bills – nothing was heard from them until Gbevlo-Lartey moved his ‘boys’ and bulldozers to the site.
National Security operatives at about 1:30 am on February 18,2014, according to the VCG, invaded the Legon campus, pulling down a toll booth erected by the University of Ghana authorities to collect road tolls from motorists entering the campus.
The National Security Coordinator later confirmed the demolition saying that the university authorities had no right to put up die toll booth at the Okponglo section of the road leading to the university campus.
“The next time they put another block there, we will go and remove it; that structure cannot be there,” Gbevlo charged.
The Vice Chancellors, in a statement signed by Prof. Akwasi Asabre-Ameyaw, Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, after a February 27, 2014 meeting and issued in Accra yesterday, condemned Col. Gbevlo-Lartey’s unilateral decision to pull down the structures, indicating that the demolition “was done without prior discussions with the university management.”
The statement continued, “VCG therefore condemns unreservedly the demolition action by the National Security Coordinator without following the due process as required by law and also when the university had already taken steps to ease the traffic that has been cited as justification of the structures.”
