Ghana: Faith Baptist School denies child molestation charge

Authorities of the Faith Community Baptist School have dismissed claims that their students were left unprotected during the school’s recent clash with some irate youth in the Madina community over a disputed piece of land.

“I wish to state emphatically, that what was said or reported is false, and does not represent the facts on the grounds. Some parents who were present during the attack can attest to the fact that our teachers and school authorities were on hand to provide the necessary protection to the students.

“In fact, all students were with their teachers in their classrooms, while the main gates to the school were locked. Students were later moved out of their classrooms to the chapel. Parents rushed to pick up their children, and students were allowed to leave after the police had secured the school area.

“Also, officers from the Madina Urban Council hurried to the school and led the younger ones with their teachers to the Madina Urban Council,” noted Kate Oduro Sarfo, Headmistress in charge of Primary section of Faith Community Baptist School, at a press conference in Accra yesterday.

Child’s Right International, a non-governmental organization, with the sole aim of fighting for children’s rights, immediately after the Madina riot, went public to criticise Faith Community Baptist School for leaving students of the school “to their own mercy to run for their lives, while teachers and school authorities were nowhere to provide protection for the children of the school.”

A week ago, the entire Madina community woke up to witness one of the most unfortunate behaviours exhibited by some irate youth, who identified themselves as “Concerned Youth of Madina Zongo.”

The youth subjected the leadership of the school to all manner of attacks, in their attempt to claim a parcel of land, which it said, belonged to the Madina Zongo community, but had been claimed by the Faith Community Baptist School/Church.

The incident attracted the attention of the Ghana Police Service, which went to the scene to rescue the school authorities.

The incident turned nasty when the irate youth turned their anger on the police for preventing them from achieving their purpose.

The police had to use all manner of tactics, including tear gas and the firing of live bullets to disperse the crowd.

Twelve people were arrested in the said riot, and are currently on bail. Calm has since returned to the school, with the authorities and students going about their normal duties.

According to Madam Sarfo, the authorities of the school do not intend to criticise Child’s Rights International, but would have preferred they visited the scene upon hearing what was happening to get first hand information, before going public with its press briefing over the issue.

She said no official of the NGO had, till date, visited the school to ask about the welfare of the students, after the horrific incident.

Madam Sarfo noted that no student died or sustained any injury as a result of the riot.

Touching on the ownership of the disputed piece of land, the Head Pastor of the Faith Community Baptist Church, Rev. Joseph Oduro Yeboah noted that the church, in 1982, entered into an agreement with Redco, a subsidiary of the Bank for Housing and Construction, for the use of the six-acre piece of land for purposes that would benefit both the church and the community.

The school, ever since it acquired that piece of land, has faced stiff opposition from the community, in its attempt to reclaim it. The two factions have over a decade been back and forth at the law courts, all claiming ownership of the disputed land.

Pulling a catalogue of documents to buttress his claim, Mr. Yeboah said that the six-acre piece of land was sold to the church for an amount of ¢34 million and was meant for the construction of a health facility and vocational school.

According to him, since the church was not ready with its project, it allowed the community to use it for all social purposes, including serving as a polling station for the community during elections.

“The most important fact that the public must know is that the land was not a ‘community land’ or public arena that the church had gone to take from the community. It is rather the church’s land which the public has been using for parking of trucks, Christian crusades, Ramadan activities, political rallies and other purposes,” he emphasised.

Rev. Yeboah, therefore, assured parents and guardians of the school that the unfortunate incident will not happen again, since the administrators of the church and school were exploring all avenues to ensure the cordiality that had existed for the past twenty-four years between the church, school and community.

Welcome on board: Ghana: Security probe cache of arms

Welcome on board: Ghana: Security probe cache of arms: "The Government of Ghana has tasked the various security agencies to conduct thorough investigations into the circumstances under which a cac..."

Ghana: Security probe cache of arms

The Government of Ghana has tasked the various security agencies to conduct thorough investigations into the circumstances under which a cache of arms was found buried at Akweteyman, a suburb of Accra.

Consequently, the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service, the Bureau of National Investigations, and the intelligence unit of the Ghana Armed Forces have began prying into how the ammunition, said to have been buried in the ground for the past 30 years, came to be located right in the centre of Accra, without the security services knowing about it.

The ammunitions were discovered by accident late Friday, when workers of a construction firm working on a road rehabilitation were digging a trench to lay a culvert. The workers first discovered five rusty pistols buried in the ground. Their suspicion for more discoveries heightened and they, therefore, decided to dig further, resulting in the finding of a sack containing pistols and other weapons.

They called in the police who immediately arrived on the scene to cart the weapons away. “After the police had examined the items, they realised that parts of the weapons were missing, and, therefore, decided to come back to the scene to search the area more intensively,” our sister paper, The Chronicle on Saturday reported.

The police, The Chronicle on Saturday noted, uncovered two more sacks full of pistols, which they took away to the regional headquarters in Accra.

Reacting to the arms find, the government issued a press release through the Ministry of Information at the week-end.

Signed by Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the statement described the weapons discovery as “relatively small quantities of stripped and corroded parts of arms and ammunition.” The government suspects the ammunitions “to have been buried in the area in the late 1970s.” So far, no arrest has been made, but the government said the owner of the land, suspected to be a former military personnel, has been invited to help in the investigation.

At the time of going to press last night, the name of the landlord of the house where the cache of arms were found was not known, but the Acting Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Cephas Arthur, when contacted on his mobile handset, said a proper briefing on the issue would be made today.

Security experts The Chronicle talked to opined that if the government suspects that the arms were buried in the 1970s, then it could be linked to the junior and non-commissioned officers revolt of June 1979, when arms and ammunitions were released by some military officers without lawful authority.