Assin Central lawmaker, Kennedy Agyapong has called for the dismissal of the Ashanti Regional Director of the Department of Urban Roads for not paying attention to concerns raised by the headmaster of the Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi over poor roads.
Mr Agyapong believes that the demonstration by the students of the school which resulted in the confrontation with the Police amidst shooting, resulted because the Director of the Urban Roads failed to act on the concerns raised.
Speaking in interview with TV3’s Komla Kluste after leading members of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament to visit the school on Friday June 17, Mr Agyapong who is the chair of the Committee said “For me, I don’t mince words, I tell you like it is, we have evidence that the school has written to the Ashanti Regional Urban Roads Director since 2010, the last one was September 2021 and nothing has been done, people are dying, people get injured, damage to their cars and all the letters paid no heeded. I think somebody should be fire from there.
“If I am a Minister today, I will fire the urban roads director. If they had paid attention to what the headmaster said in the letters he has written so far this wouldn’t have happened, students getting injured, police getting injured.”
Over thirty students of the Islamic Senior High School were rushed to the hospital after the police allegedly fired tear gas and live bullets to disperse students who were demonstrating over incessant vehicular knockdown.
Worried parents stormed the school to demand for the release of their wards on Monday June 13.
The affected students were conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and other hospitals in Kumasi.
“I should be worried but some of them have been resituated . we will follow to the hospital and see how they are doing,” Madam Mary Owusu Afriyie, the Regional Education Director told journalists.
following the shooting on Monday, the Deputy Regional Commander in the Ashanti Region, DCOP Kwesi Akomea Apraku has been removed.
This was after the Inspector General of Police Dr George Akuffo Dampre led a team to the area to assess the situation.
Portions of a statement issued by the Police after the IGP’s visit said “It was further established that even though nobody was hit by a bullet the Police handling of the incident was poor and fell short of our standard operating procedure on crowd control.
“As a result, DCOP Kwesi Akomeah-Apraku who was acting as the Regional Commander has been removed from his position and has been interdicted. Two other officers, ACP Mr George Ankomah, the Regional Operations Officer and ACP Mr Alex Cudjoe Acquah, the Suame Divisional Police Commander have also been interdicted to make way for a thorough investigations into the matter.”
source 3news.com|Ghana