Deputy ranking member on parliament’s education committee, Dr Clement Apaak, has questioned the motives of management at the University of Ghana, on the failure to execute an injunction placed on a residency policy decision it took in January this year, by an Accra High court.
According to him, the eighteen students who were arrested for alleged violence at the Commonwealth Hall following the injunction are only registering their displeasure. He indicated that the university has decided to implement the policy and those affected, resorted to go to the court, for which the latter has granted an injunction on the matter.
In light of this, Dr Apaak expressed surprise over the failure by the university management to show respect and act accordingly to the verdict of the court.
“The injunction was granted days before what occurred yesterday did. So, the question then is, why did the university management fail to act on the injunction by putting in place the needed mechanisms to ensure as the court indicated, the old arrangement should be upheld pending the hearing of the substantive case.”
Dr Clement Apaak
Dr Apaak stated that on his part, he will trigger a meeting with the committee on education in parliament. This, he explained, is because the committee has a role to ensure that teaching and learning, and any matter to do with education is addressed.
“So, it is now clear that the university deliberately chose not to respect the court decision… What they did was to go and bring police to intentionally harass and brutalize the students. I have seen the videos and it is terrible. We cannot live in a country where we don’t respect our laws and respect decisions laid by courts.
“What type of example is university management trying to teach the rest of us as well as students if the university will not respect the court vetting. So, I think this committee clearly has a responsibility of calling on the university to respect the court order and to do the needful.”
Dr Clement Apaak
Conduct of university management is disappointing
Declaring his “natural biases” as a product of the Commonwealth Hall, Dr Apaak emphasized that the matter is personal to him although it has not come formally to parliament’s committee of education. With this, he vowed to draw the attention of the other leaders of the committee to what is going on.
” As an alumnus and an Old Vandal, I strongly believe that the conduct of the university management as far as this issue is concerned is very disappointing. We have been very forthright in expressing our misgivings with regards to the basis for which the hall master and senior tutor of Commonwealth Hall were suspended.”
Dr Clement Apaak
The deputy ranking member on parliament’s education committee posited that the association has over the period, complained about the lack of support to it, particularly with respect to the decision that university management made, including deciding to change in a very “ad hoc and discriminatory manner” the accommodation arrangement as far as residents of Commonwealth Hall is concerned.
He noted that this was the reason why ‘Old Vandals’, opted to go to court to challenge the conduct of the university in general and to specifically seek an injunction to prevent the university from implementing arrangements that they believe were infringing on the rights of students of the Commonwealth Hall.
“So, as I speak, I speak more as an Old Vandal than as a member of the education committee and I can tell you that the Old Vandals in parliament, we have decided to speak publicly on this matter. We are likely to address the parliamentary press corps on the issue this afternoon and we are looking forward to even doing a statement on the floor of parliament because we don’t believe that what is happening is fair. We don’t believe that the university is treating this issue fairly and in an equitable manner.”
Dr Clement Apaak
