Students of the Kumasi Polytechnic on Monday demonstrated against the executives of the Students Representative Council (SRC) over alleged misappropriation of funds.
The angry students say the misappropriation of funds was evident in what they describe as a poor organisation of their SRC week celebration held last week.
According to the angry students who wore red arm bands and held placards demanding accountability, the executives failed to put to good use the monies they contribute as dues.
Among other things, they said this year’s SRC week celebration which should have lasted for a week, lasted for just three days. They said their executives also failed to provide them with the usual cloth or T-shirts usually used for the celebration.
They are thus demanding accountability from the executives for the monies expended on the celebration. The angry students locked up the gate and boycotted lectures.
One of the students told Citi News’ Hawa Iddrisu that they had every right to demand accountability.
“The reason for the demonstration is that, students are paying dues and we expect our dues to be used in positive ways. You can see that the generator there was donated to us by our past SRC President. We were supposed to have SRC week for a week but we had it for three days. And we had nothing in terms of shirts and cloth so I think these are enough reasons for us to demonstrate.”
The demonstration on Monday has forced the postponement of the school’s mid-sem exams which was scheduled for today.
Authorities say the exams would instead come off on Tuesday, May 2.
In an interview with journalists, the Rector of the Polytechnic, Prof. Nicholas Nana Nsowah, expressed disappointment in the students for not using internal mechanisms to resolve their grievances against the SRC executives.
“Fortunately, the police were also here not to intimidate them but to make sure there is calm on campus. We went to meet with the students to know their concerns. According to them, the SRC week was not properly celebrated. They said this time around the event started on Wednesday and ended on Saturday although it’s normally one week. They also said they were not given any food or snacks after the event and they suspect that the executives might have squandered some monies and so that’s why they decided to demonstrate against the SRC.”
He however promised that the institution will ensure an auditing of the SRC’s account.
After a meeting with the students, he asked them to put together their concerns and forward it to management through the Dean of Students for deliberations.
“If it was to do with the SRC, this was more of an internal students’ matter and they could have addressed it using their own mechanisms by also involving the dean of students. So we impressed upon them to go and list their grievances properly and go through the Dean of Students. We also promised them that we will get the auditors to go through the books of the SRC and whatever happens we will let them know. The students are now calm and they have agreed to open the gates and allow lectures to go on peacefully whiles we address the issues.
The demonstration has since been called off and normalcy has returned to the campus.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AfanyiDadzie
Photos By: Hawa Iddrisu