Ho (V/R) , – 16 June The head of the civil service has given approval to the Ho Polytechnic to temporarily house its 155 students at the Ho government secretarial school. Dr George M. Afeti, Principal of the polytechnic, told GRI today, that the students affected by last Saturday’s fire outbreak at the girls’ hostel would be allowed to stay at the new place up to August 30 this year. Lectures, he said, will resume next Monday after one week break but added that they will have problems with beds, mattresses, and blankets. Dr Afeti therefore appealed to organisations, individuals and philanthropists to come to their aid to enable academic work to resume. Last Saturday’s fire outbreak started on the second flour of the two-storeyed female hostel of the Ho polytechnic and the cause of the accident is yet to be determined. A statement by the principal said the fire caused considerable damage to students property worth more than 300 million cedis excluding damage to the building which is being assessed by the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited. It took the combined effort of the fire service, the police, the Ghana Water and Sewage Cooperation and the polytechnic community more than three hours to bring the fire under control, the statement added.
