Students of Ho Polytechnic, comprising mainly females last Friday night boycotted the Students Representative Council’s (SRC) “Face of Ho Poly”, a beauty pageant show, dismissing the event as the “fear of the unknown”.

The Pageant, which was one of the activities slated for the SRC Week this year, went haywire on Monday, May 16, when students on a street float to herald the Week allegedly got involved in acts of misconduct including sexual assault and harassment of passers by including some female students of the Ho Nurses Training School.

Some of the students told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the SRC Jamborees were virtually over since the Monday incident and so the boycott of the beauty pageant was expected because they did not know what would happen.

“The auditorium (venue of the show) is enclosed and you cannot predict what will happen there so the best thing is not to go at all,” an accounting student who gave her name only as Dela said. Victoria, moving along with Dela said what happened at the float did not encourage her to attend the pageant show.

A male student in his middle 20s said the heavy police presence at the venue deterred him, while some others said the GH¢10.00 entrance fee was the barrier and therefore left for other social events in town.

When the GNA went round the campus, some students were seen studying at the lecture halls, while others were gathered in small groups seemingly oblivious of the Beauty Show. The few who attended the event however described it as “great”. “Face of Ho Poly” has been one of the highly patronised events of the SRC, with many non-polytechnic community residents attending.