The mugging of Daniel Osei, the Level 400 University of Ghana, Legon student and his close shave is an indication of how poor the security architecture of the premier tertiary institution is.
It is unacceptable that parents would worry about the safety of their wards on campus of the university. Walking through the campus of the university gives one a sense of utmost security and that is how campuses are supposed to be. It is only when such occurrences are reported that it begins to dawn upon us that something is not right in the management of security in the university.
We would not be wrong to think that security has been taken for granted for far too long on the campus of the school. This is not the first reported instance of a security breach; the others before this were equally unnerving. We would have expected the security department of the University to raise its watch level to the highest point to obviate such unpleasant occurrences after the previous breaches.
That students would no longer feel safe to go for the usual night studies they love to do suggests how dangerous life on campus has become. We have taken notice of the authorities’ call on students to be calm and wish to state that while we agree with the call, we cannot ignore the apprehension the nasty development has wreaked upon residents on campus and their parents at home.
Daniel could have lost his life under the circumstances, the repercussions of which could have only been imagined. If this is not a wakeup call for the university authorities to rethink their security arrangements, then we do not know what else is.
The security of the premier university can be tight if this department is resourced sufficiently with an appropriate manpower to render this crucial service. That outsiders can breach the security of this institution to the extent of rendering some portions of the campus dangerous at certain periods is an indictment on the authorities especially the security department.
Yesterday the Greater Accra Regional Operations Director ACP/Mr. Kwesi Ofori and a team visited the crime in the company of the university’s managers. We are excited and assured that the police have announced some measures such as motorcycle patrols of the streets on campus. We are hard-pressed not to describe the measures as short-lived because we do not think the police would provide a year-long patrol of the campus.
Given the vulnerability of the campus, a robust internal security system beyond the current arrangement is needed to ward off such occurrences. We have learnt that non-functioning streetlights are being worked upon, and one wonders why this picture could have been allowed to persist until now.
Somebody certainly was sleeping on their jobs. Something radical must be rolled out to stem the occasional yet dangerous security breaches on the campus of the University of Ghana.