Some of the injured students
POLICE IN the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, Tuesday evening reportedly used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse students of the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) who were said to be making merry on the streets over the school’s qualification to the Supper Zonal inter-school sports competition.
At least 20 people, including some police personnel, were injured in the riotous encounter that began at about 5:00 pm outside the Baba Yara Sports Stadium; and some 35 students were arrested in the process.
The injured, one of who had a gunshot wound on the head, were said to be among a crowd of students who were trying to take cover inside their campus where the police had chased them to.
The 17-year-old Form One student was rushed to the Anwiam Clinic alongside other students who suffered from teargas inhalation, chest, leg and other body injuries.
As at yesterday evening many of the injured students, including an asthmatic patient, remained hospitalised at the clinic, located within the vicinity of the institute.
The violent clash, according to the police, came about when the jubilant KTI students got rowdy on the way, blocking free flow of traffic leading to the Amakom traffic light area, thereby attracting the intervention of the law enforcement officers.
An eyewitness told DAILY GUIDE that the students got highly charged when they saw the police officers.
The students were also said to have battled the police by pelting them with stones before running to their campus to seek refuge.
Angered by the perceived stubbornness, the security officers reportedly stormed the KTI’s campus where they reportedly visited brutalities against the students, battering those caught in the frenzy with the butts of their guns, and destroying food and dresses as they (students) escaped through windows of their dormitories.
ASP Mohammed Yusif Tanko, Public Relations Officer of the Ashanti Regional Police Command, who confirmed the incident, told DAILY GUIDE that the Regional CID had initiated investigation into the incident.
According to him, the police were compelled to use a ‘proportional force’ to counteract the rioting behaviour after the students had vandalised two police vehicles and injured five officers.
He intimated that the students again refused to remove barricades they had used to block the main road leading to their school, thereby causing huge traffic congestion.
But the students denied any of the accusations and indicated that it was rather the police who first fired shots at them when they refused to disperse, while walking and singing together toward their campus.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi