KNUST shutdown as authorities race against time to reopen

In the last 24 hours, KNUST has been chaotic for a university community that should otherwise have been an incubator for learning, thinking, and peaceful coexistence.

But over 30 cars have either been set ablaze or had their windscreens smashed, the administration block of the Kwame Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has been defiled by angry students who are at war with the Vice-Chancellor and the university authorities for what the students regard as mistreatment.

What was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration by the students in protest over what they call oppression by the university authorities turned violent.

The students of KNUST disrupted classes on the day and turned the university premises into a battlefield destroying the school and private property at will.

They accused the university security of terrorizing students and subjecting them to physical attacks, an allegation the university authorities have been quick to deny.

Videos of the demonstration were posted on Facebook as well as viral on youtube.

Standstill at KNUST

The university has been shut down after a 12-hour curfew was announced by the Ashanti Region security command to keep students indoors and to stop them from further violence.

They have now been driven away from the university with authorities announcing an indefinite shutdown.

Politicians, including Education, Information, and National Security ministers, chiefs, security personnel have turned the university into a violent scene each assessing the extent of damage and providing solutions for sanity to prevail.

It is not clear yet when the school will be reopened. Except for international students who have been granted access to a hostel, the university has been turned into a ‘ghost town’ with no activity to report.

Information Minister-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah will not disclose details of the meeting with the feuding parties, except to say everyone has been cooperative thus far.