Students of the Ghana School of Survey and Marking in the Greater Accra Region, are demonstrating to prevent the sale of their lands by officials of the Lands Commission.
The students say should the authorities go ahead with the decision, they will be deprived of their land and school buildings.
“We are ready to move on and fight this battle till the tail end of it and we are not ready to quit whatsoever. We are not ready to move out of the premises of this compound because we actually reached a consensus, a three year contract; and until that contract is ended, there is no way we are moving out of this premises. We are sounding it clear to them that we have invested a lot not just financially, but our time too. It seems the Lands Commission does not have our interest at heart”.
When the land sale is complete, the classroom blocks will all be demolished, thus students will be affected.
According to sources, the demolition is to pave way for the construction of a shopping mall. The students however, want the authorities to provide them with well structured school blocks to replace their classrooms before they vacate the premises.
A worker of the school who pleaded anonymity says staff members are angry with the development and are all backing the demonstration with the hope that something will be done about it.
“Our directors only heard about it at the last moment the decisions are made by the Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission and just a few members of his team. They decide everything and they try to push it down the throat of everybody else and they are trying to cow down everybody so that nobody will talk about it but then I ask, if they were their children, will they treat them that way?”
Executives of the student body say students were not taken into consideration when the decision was taken and are highly disappointed in the Lands Commission for taking this action.
They also believe some politicians and other higher authorities are involved in the action.
The students are pleading to authorities to reconsider their decision as they will be greatly affected and called on government to come to their aid.
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citifmonline.com/Ghana