Brutalized Law Students Demand Apology From Marauding Police

Students of the Ghana Law School who were brutalized by personnel from the Riot Control Unit of the Ghana Police Service are demanding an unqualified apology from the Police.

A statement released by the students yesterday also called on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate and bring perpetrators of the violence against unarmed civilians to book.

Yesterday, the so called ‘Red Monday’ demonstration by aggrieved students of the Ghana Law School who were protesting a culture of mass failure of students who sit the Ghana Law school entrance exams turned bloody on the Liberation Road.

The students who were attempting to present a petition to President Akufo-Addo were stonewalled by the Police from reaching the seat of government with hot water and rubber bullets.

The Police also arrested some of the protestors. Reportedly, one of the fallouts from the skirmish on the liberation Road was the shooting of one person in the arm.

A number of the protesting Law students also sustained various degrees of injury.

The Police have since justified their action saying the students had not obtained the requisite permit to demonstrate. ACP David Eklu, Director of Public Affairs for the Ghana Police Service has even branded the protest march as unlawful assembly.

However, the students have said the police department lied because they duly notified the Police about their intent to demonstrate and that the Police, had for some strange reason, told them that they could not demonstrate on Monday the 7th of October.

Jonathan Alua, President of the Students Representative Council of the Ghana Law School has since said the Police’ show of force trampled on the students’ right to demonstrate under article 21 of the Constitution, calling on CHRAJ to look into the matter and bring perpetrators to justice.

Students of the Ghana Law School have recently been provoked to demand against the status quo under which majority of students who sit the Law School entrance exams appear to suffer deliberate mass failures.

In the latest episode, only 128 students out 1,820 passed the exams with as many as 11 students scoring zero (0) in aggregate score.

 In response to agitations, Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has promised that a bigger campus will be built to accommodate more students but the students have said what is needed is a complete overhaul of legal education in Ghana.