Residents of Yilo and and upper Manya Krobo municipal of the eastern region have angrily reacted to the current governments’s decision to relocate the first public university in the eastern region from Somanya to Bunso.
The protesters have given Akufo Addo a two week ultimatum to rescind its decision.
According to the protestors from Krobo and Adangbe, there is a grand scheme by the Akufo-Addo administration to relocate the main campus of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development from Somanya to Bunso in the Akyem Abuakwa area and want government to rescind its decision.
Dozens of the residents clad in red and black with red arm bands and head gear, hit the streets of Somanya and Odumase with their protest, despite the Education Minister’s insistence that there was no such relocation plan.
The protestors after converging at the Agormanya market square marched through the principal streets amidst brass band music.
Police officers from Akosombo, Odumase and Somanya provided security for the demonstrators.
Secretary of United Krobo Foundation, Joshua Ogbojor insisted that documents they have sighted reveals that government is scheming to make Bunso the main campus of the university.
” We have seen the documents and we are more than convinced that this government wants to make Bunso the main campus of the university because how can you say Somanya is the main campus but in the document you are going to build the office of the vice chancellor , the university’s administration and all the faculties in Bunso. Clearly, we are being shortchanged but we won’t sit down for that to happen”
” How can the cost of building the Bunso campus which is a satellite campus be thrice that of the main campus? He quizzed.
The demonstration was taken to the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly where they handed over their petition.
The protestors then continued to the Somanya lorry station where they handed over another petition to the Yilo Krobo Municipal Chief Executive, Ebenezer Tetteh Kupualor, amidst jeers that he’s not done enough to address their concerns.
Joshua Ogbojor says there will continue to pile pressure on government until its heeds to their concerns.
” Yes, we will continue to protest until government see the need to rescind its decision. Our next action is a naked demo and we mean to do that for government to do the right thing”.
Former President John Dramani Mahama on December 29, 2016, cut sod for the construction of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development at Somanya, in the Eastern Region at the cost of 45 million Pounds Sterling.
The former President mentioned that Parliament had approved the contract for the construction of the modern university, which would offer degree programmes in environmental studies, climate change, urban development, Water Resources Development, Energy Sustainability, Energy Economics and Agriculture.
The University is to have four undergraduate Schools – the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, the School of Sustainable Development, the School of Agriculture and Agriculture Entrepreneurship and the School of the Built Environment.
