Three senior police officers have been interdicted by the Ghana Police Service following Monday’s disturbances at the Islamic Senior High School (SHS) at Aprepo, in the Ashanti Region.
They are Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Kwasi Akomeah-Apraku, Deputy Ashanti Regional Police Commander; Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) George Ankomah, the Regional Operations Commander; and ACP Alex Cudjoe, the Suame Divisional Police Commander.
Additionally, the Police Professional and Standard Bureau has commenced investigations into the conduct of officers, who were responsible for the police response at the SHS.
The Director of the Police Public Affairs, Chief Superintendent Grace Ansah-Akrofi, disclosed these in a statement, copied to the Ghanaian Times, in Accra, yesterday.
It stated that clinical psychologists had been deployed to offer psychological support to students, affected by disturbances at the school.
It stated that the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, led a team from the Police Headquarters to Kumasi, yesterday, to meet with the school authorities.
According to the statement, the IGP also visited the students, who were admitted to Suntreso Government Hospital, Kwadaso Hospital and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, following the disturbances.
It said “Some injured police personnel, who were receiving medical care at the Police Clinic, in Kumasi, were also visited”.
The statement disclosed that police investigations into the case so far revealed that some students of the SHS took to the streets and blocked sections of the road, to demonstrate against frequent motor traffic accidents in front of the school.
It stated “the police responded to disperse the students and open the road to normal traffic flow”, adding that the student ‘pelted’ the police with stones and police used pepper spray and fired warning shots in an attempt to disperse them.
The statement said it was further established that even though nobody was hit by a bullet, the police handling of the incident was poor and fell short of their standard operating procedure on crowd control.
According to the police, calm has since been restored to the school.