Crime & Punishment of Friday, 13 April 2007

Source: GNA

Police denies arresting piracy students on campus

Kumasi, April 13, GNA- The Sofoline Police in Kumasi has denied that the KNUST students who were arrested on piracy charges were picked up from the university campus.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Kumasi, ASP Ameyaw Afriyie, Sofoline District Police Commander, insisted that the students were arrested in a house at Ayeduase, near the university campus. The arrest of Ebenezer Larkai Quaye and Samuel Antwi Boasiako, both Bachelor of Science, Planning students for pirating the works of some musicians had sparked a furore among some members of the university community, accusing the police and the Anti-piracy task force of MUSIGA for not following the security procedures on the university campus. However, ASP Afriyie said the police were aware of the security procedures in arresting students on campus and would not do anything that would compromise security on campus. He emphasized that, even if the two were arrested on campus, it did not in anyway exonerate them from the criminal act of piracy, since nobody was above the law.

He said it was not right for people to enjoy the proceeds of other people's works and urged the university authorities not to entertain such practices on campus.

It would be recalled that, the police and the Anti-piracy tasks force of MUSIGA and Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry (GAPI), at Ayeduase upon a tip off, arrested the two students. The security team retrieved two computer system units, four keyboards, thirty-seven assorted pirated Compact Disks (CDs), a television set, and two Mouse from the room they were operating from.