Following violent altercations between university students from the Katanga Hall and Unity Hall, the police have restored calm at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in the Ashanti Region.
It took the intervention of additional police deployed to campus to ensure peace after bloody riots on Thursday, 18 August 2022.
This left 12 students injured, whiles properties and three cars parked in front of the Continental Hall were unfortunately destroyed.
“We, therefore, urge all law-abiding members of the university community to remain calm and support the police as we deal with the situation,” the police said in a statement after the clashes.
The riot is said to have ensued when students from Katanga attempted to use a route in front of Continental in a procession as part of their Hall week celebrations.
As part of the celebrations, University Hall commenced what they call a ‘Zulu procession’ through some parts of the campus, but their colleagues at Unity Hall tried to stop them from using their frontage.
This led to students pelting stones at each other.
For over a decade, the two halls agreed never to go beyond the Peace Junction when on processions.
The rival halls have been engaging in violent attacks on one another for several years, resulting in drastic measures such as the ban on hall week celebrations and processions.
The recent move to forestall such clashes was to convert both halls to mixed, but this has not solved the age-long problem.
Meanwhile, the Ashanti Regional Security Council(REGSEC ) has issued a press release warning the students to desist from unlawful activities following the clash.
“The REGSEC is informing all students and residents of the university community that all actions intended by any person or group of persons to disturb the current peaceful security in the university will be addressed with the legal instrument of the state.”
“It is requested that people nursing such intentions desist from that and go by the rule of law as any breach of the peace in KNUST and the region will be addressed appropriately,” the press release added.
Reports suggest that the rampage started when a student from the Mensah Sarbarh Hall was beaten and his phone taken away during the ‘Sarbahfest’ celebration.
The resident returned to report the issue to his colleagues at the hall, who followed him to the Commonwealth Hall to fight back.
A vehicle at the Mensah Sarbah Hall car park was set ablaze while a bust of John Mensah Sarbah, situated outside the Mensah Sarbah Hall, was stolen.