Vandals March to Castle

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday April 6, 2010
Barring any hitch, students of the Commonwealth Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon will today storm the Castle in Osu to petition President J.E.A Mills who is cooling off in Equatorial Guinea over the decision by the university’s authorities to turn the famous hall into a mixed hall for graduate students.

The Vandals as they are affectionately called have vowed to hit the streets in a massive demonstration even if the police decide not to offer them protection or even allow them to embark on the exercise.

But the Greater Accra Regional Police Command says it may not be possible for the students to demonstrate because they did not follow up to discuss with the police the route to be used for the demonstration.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Cyprian Zenge of the Regional Police Public Relations Directorate confirmed to the Daily Guide in a telephone interview that they indeed received a notice from the students to go on demonstration.
He said the letter was written on April 30, 2010 and sent to the police command on May 2, 2010.

He however said the police told the leadership of the students to meet them to discuss the routes for the demonstration but they (students) did not turn up.
“They are supposed to come to us to tell us the routes that they will be using for the demonstration so that we can consider it if it is convenient but as I speak to you they are still not here.

“We are ever ready to keep the peace of the nation and would not allow anybody to create problems. They have their rights under the constitution to demonstrate but they should follow proper procedure”.

When the Daily Guide visited the campus of Ghana’s premier university yesterday at 9:15 am, tension was very high and there was a sizeable police presence to prevent the students from causing any mayhem.

At Vandal City, most of the students were in their usual red regalia and some chanted the hall’s slogans.

The students who hanged around the entrance of the hall did not appear to have examination papers to write.

Earlier on, media reports suggesting that the Vandals were trying to disrupt the examination currently underway at the university but when the Daily Guide got to the Central Cafeteria where most of the students had converged to write their papers there was calm and the examination was going on as scheduled.

Reports said they caused delay in writing the early morning papers.

Dr. Francis Baniru, Chief Examiner, later told journalists that the examination was delayed for several minutes with answer booklets and an identity card snatched from the owners by some of the irate Vandals.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Matthew Tetteh in charge of the Legon Police who led the police patrol team said “so far everything is calm but we will still remain here to ensure that the students do not cause any mayhem.”

“We are still advising them to remain calm and not take the law into their own hands. We are telling them to use appropriate channels to seek redress in this matter.”

Bernard Oduro Takyi popularly called Bernardo, a former Junior Common Room (JCR) President asked the students to exercise restraint as the leadership of the hall tries to dialogue with the university authorities over the issue.

He assured ASP Tetteh and his team that the Vandal leadership would use dialogue to get the decision reversed and not endorse any acts of violence.

A senior tutor of the hall, Dr. Edzada later in a telephone interview said “we have spoken to them. We are still meeting them. They should not do anything to cause public disaffection”.

“I understand that the Vandals are going to meet Vice President John Mahama. The SRC has also come in. We hope amicable solution would be found for calm to return”.

It would be recalled that during the university’s congregation on March 13, 2010, some students of the Commonwealth Hall, nearly disrupted the event by allegedly heckling former the UN boss, some officials of the university and other dignitaries.

The students heckled the former UN Secretary General and chanted songs in his face and he reportedly suffered the unpleasant experience along with invited guests and parents of graduands.


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