The Eastern Regional Branch of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), says it will use all legal means to resist government’s attempts to relocate the Donkorkrom Campus of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development to Bunso, near Kyebi.
A former Deputy Minister of Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, had alleged that the said relocation was without recourse to Parliament hence making it illegal.
[contextly_sidebar id=”2rPW3JGrQOZFObEVGI9ORCByj2VXxJC4″]Speaking in an interview with Citi News, the former deputy Education Minister said, “the program which Parliament had already approved was that, there will be two main campuses, the Somanya campus and the Donkorkrom campus in the Affram Plains area. The information I have, which is unimpeachable, credible, is that, this government has changed the second campus from Donkorkrom in Afram Plains to Bunso in Kyebi, and that is why they did not want to answer the question. The facility that this house approved in 2016 has to do with funding for two campuses, there is reasonable proximity.”
He said although he tried to seek clarification from the Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh on the matter, the former did not give details about the development, noting that “they know what they have done, for which reason they are hiding from the people of this country.”
The Ministry of Education in response described such claims as false.
However, speaking to Citi News, the Eastern Regional Communications Officer of the NDC, Jamal Konneh, said they will resort to demonstrations and a possible legal action to get government to back down on such a decision.
“When you pick the constitution, every citizen has the right to defend his case if his right is being violated or an individual is trying to cheat on him or her. If a government is trying to cheat, we have the right to demonstrate, we will do that and I know the sitting President believes and understands demonstration because he has led several demonstrations before and demonstration is a language that he understands. Apart from that, we can battle this case in the law court which we will not relent on at all if all avenues are used without us achieving our goal” Mr. Konneh said.
The Education Minister had told Parliament that the construction of the proposed Somanya Campus of the University would begin next month, but did not give details about the construction of the second campus.
The construction of the University was part of the Mahama administration’s vision to ensure each region in the country had a public university.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana