KNUST RIOT INVESTIGATION STARTS

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, has inaugurated a three-member Committee to investigate all circumstances incidental to the recent students’ disturbances at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST leading an extensive destruction to public and private property which cost is estimated at nearly seven million Ghana Cedis.

 The Committee, under the Chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Rose Constance Owusu, starts work immediately without any specific timeline. The other members of the Committee are a former Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Very Reverend Ama Afo Blay and a serving Ashanti Regional Head of the Bureau of National Investigations, BNI, Mr. David Adu Osei, with the Registrar of the Ashanti Region House of Chiefs, Mr. Kofi Owusu, as Secretary. 

Members of the Committee were led by Chairman of the University’s Council, Nana Effah Apenteng, to take the Oath of Membership.

 In a remark, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who is also the Chancellor of the KNUST, spelt out the mandate of the Committee to include establishing 'all the immediate and remote causes of the October 22 students’ riot' that was a fall out of a supposed students’ peaceful protest march at the instance of the Students Representative Council, SRC. 

The Committee is as well, charged to make recommendations that would help forestall a recurrence of the incidence that led to a temporal close down of the KNUST.  Otumfuo Osei Tutu noted that, even though last year’s problem was about the second in the history of the university since its establishment, it was by far the worse and described it as shameful and an embarrassment to the institution and all genuine stakeholders.

 He said, it is the responsibility of parents or guardians to team up with the university’s authorities to ensure that the students are holistically developed into socially responsible intellectuals and citizens.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu entreated all stakeholders in the matter to fully cooperate with the Committee in its work to come out with far reaching report to avert any possible incidences. He said, "As you will discern, the focus of the inquiry is on the event and circumstances leading to the outbreak of the disturbances. But, I have been mindful of the fact that, this may have created a  rare opportunity to  throw a useful searchlight on possible cobwebs that may need clearing for the enhancement of the managerial and academic integrity of our beloved university. It is for this reason that we have provided for the Committee to give a hearing to matters, which in their respected opinion, are germane to the ultimate goal of the inquiry."

The Chairman of the KNUST Council, Nana Effah Apenteng, said, even though there is the urgent need for the Committee to complete its mandate to the satisfaction of all, it should be given enough room to discharge a thorough job without much pressure to finish. 

Chairman of the Committee, Justice Rose Constance Owusu, assured that, the Committee will go about the investigation in an atmosphere of transparency and fairness without witch hunting. She thanked the Asantehene for selecting them to perform the task.