NDC Demands Closure Of Opened SHS Over Covid-19 …And forensic audit into Covid-19 relief funds

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has demanded the immediate closure of all Senior High Schools which have been reopened amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

At a press conference in Accra today, National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi, said the reopening of schools at a time that many State Institutions are shutting down on account of the virus lacks foundation in commonsense.

According to him, the reopening of the schools is callous and wicked.

“We demand the immediate closure of all reopened schools which were hurriedly reopened under the guise of facilitating the writing of WASSCE, just to make room for the Electoral Commission to register SHS students on their school campuses,” Mr. Gyamfi said.

He points out today that increasing infections of students on campuses is clear show that the idea is not good. “The Ghanaian Times newspaper reports today, that ten (10) more Senior High Schools have recorded cases of COVID-19.”

 Sammy Gyamfi points out that the WASSCE examinations which the government is using as a pretext to hold students captives on campus against their will can be forfeited as other countries have.

“As we speak, Nigeria, a major participant in the WASSCE exam has rescinded its decision to reopen schools, while Kenya has also decided to close schools until 2021. We urge President Akufo-Addo to prioritize human lives over electoral fancies.”

The NDC National Communications Officer also called for a condemnation of partisan campaign that the NPP has started in the reopened SHSs even though it is against the law for school campuses to be used for campaigning.

“Also, we call on all and sundry to condemn the action of the National Youth Organizer of the NPP, Henry Nana Boakye for leading the shameful agenda of making SHS their hotbed of political activity during these perilous times. We further demand that in consonance with GES regulations, the Headmaster of that Senior High School in Kumasi should be interdicted immediately in order to serve the ends of justice.”

The demand for the closure of schools was one of ten demands that Mr. Samuel Gyamfi had made. He had also demanded once more, a forensic audit into how the government used several millions of cedis that Parliament had voted for the government to fund Ghana’s response to Covid-19.

As the country’s containment efforts have collapsed, leading to Ghana being blacklisted as a COVID-19 country whose citizens are not to be allowed entry into the EU, Mr. Gyamfi points out that it means the money has been misused.