university students suspended for attack

By Prince MacDonald

March 2005: For Anthony (real names withheld) of the Valco hall of the university of Cape Coast, everything has been going on well on campus until four of his colleagues assaulted him. Their reason is that they suspect him of being homosexual.

The four has been rusticated for periods ranging from two to four semesters. The sanction takes effect from the first semester of 2004/05 to the end of 2005/06 academic years. The ages of the four students ranges from 21 to 24 years and they are studying different subjects raging from Mathematics to social sciences.

The rustication followed a submission of a report of a committee appointed by te university authorities to look into the matter. The committee observed that it would not be healthy for the four to live with their victim in the same university and therefore felt that they should come back only after their victim has finished with his first degree at the university.

The committee noted that one Kwesi was guilty pf slander and perjury and recommended that he be suspended for four years.

Raymond was similarly found guilty of physically assaulting Anthony. He was also found guilty of perjury and slander and recommendation was that he should also be rusticated for four years.

Richard was found guilty of slander and physically assaulting a fellow student and was rusticated for four years.

The committee fund out the Onasis who played the famous role stoking up antipathy to Anthony should be made to write a separate letter of apology to him, to the Valco hall and to the Casely-Hayford Hall. In addition, he was rusticated for a period of two years. The Casely-Hayford hall president and his vice lied in solidarity with their colleagues. The committee thus recommended that their first degree certificate be withheld for a period of one year after their final examinations.

It also recommended that a letter of warning be addressed to Joseph who attempts to lie in solidarity with his colleagues.

The committee noted that the act of framing up a fellow student is very dangerous since the victim could have lost his life trough lynching. The committee took a serious view of the entire affair and thought the matter went beyond assault.

It noted further that Anthony had missed out number of lectures and just when he was striving to settle down to serious academic work, someone handed him a write-up, which labelled him as a homosexual.

The committee finally recommended that if the dust settles, the university administration should initiate proper investigations into the possible existence of gay groups in the university campus. These recommendations were made in view of the fact that almost all the witnesses interviewed admitted having heard of the presence of gay elements among the students.

Source: The Mirror, Ghana.