Management of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) says it will not hesitate to apologize to the students and the entire public on happenings that led to violence and destruction if need be.

The University said it is meeting with the Council and the student body on Friday, October 26, to deliberate on the way forward after the violence and destruction of property on campus.

The University Relations Officer, Kwame Yeboah Jnr, who revealed this on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa hosted by Bright Kwasi Asempa, explained that the meeting is an emergency and it is in response to the directives given by the government delegation when they visited the campus last Tuesday.

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is expected to meet the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kwabena Obiri-Danso and other stakeholders, on Thursday over last Monday’s violent student protest that led to the subsequent closure of the school.

Otumfuo, who is the Chancellor of the University, is expected to gather details of what led to the students’ action and find a solution to the problem.

“[On Friday], management will hold an emergency meeting with the Council and students to decide on the way forward after the incident,” Mr. Yeboah explained.

He said “students’ reps will be there. The academic board will also be there because the government gave us a task to undertake”.

Mr. Yeboah Jnr noted that “we shall deliberate on whether to rescind that decision or not and if we have to apologize to the students, we shall do so but all these will come when we meet tomorrow”.

On the identification of some internal security personnel who were accused of brutalizing students on campus, the URO said, “the wheels of justice grinds slowly...we work with committees so we are working on identifying the perpetrators of the security brutalities on the students on campus”.

“In the past, we have dismissed some security men, we have demoted some and sanctioned some so we are on it,” he explained.

Mr. Yeboah Jnr admitted that the identifiable name tags of the internal security personnel are not bold enough.

“We have the names tag identification but they are not bold that is why [students] said they are not bold.”

Quantifying losses

The URO noted that the school is compiling inventory of the items that were destroyed to enable them quantify them.

“We are doing the inventory of the destroyed items and so far, we have about 30 vehicles destroyed. Majority of the vehicles were for workers,” he explained.

He revealed that “we will determine who will pay for the cost of destroyed items but for now, the university is replacing the destroyed items because we can’t wait for money from somewhere before we fix them”.

Foreign students

He said the decision to allow the foreign students stay on campus or leave will also be determined at the meeting on Friday.

“The foreign students are there because they live far away so we can’t force them to leave. We will deliberate on whether they should leave or not. The Council will decide on it”.