The Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the University of Cape Coast, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, has outlined new security measures aimed at protecting students of the institution from the increasing robbery attacks on campus.
The new strategy focuses on the movement of taxis, which the authorities say convey persons who infiltrate the community to attack students and staff of the university.
The system involves embossing taxis that ply on the campus with the university’s sticker, making it compulsory for all commercial vehicles to have the sticker before they can enter or leave the campus.
The Vice-Chancellor announced the new plans on Saturday at the matriculation ceremony for the 2018/2019 fresh undergraduate and post-graduate students admitted to the university.
“In the middle of October, make sure that on campus, if you want to pick a taxi, it should be a taxi with UCC sticker because there are all sorts of taxis coming from town to operate here, some with armed robbers, and it means if you do not take care, they will take all your possessions, beat you up and throw you out of the taxi”.
The University of Cape Coast has been battling robbery attacks on students, a situation that made the Students Representative Council (SRC) issue a statement in 2017 calling for better protection for students.
Prof. Ampiah Ghartey advised the freshers to be alert, saying “Be security conscious: somebody takes your bag away from you, and you must shout so that others can come to your rescue; don’t just look at the person and be shy.”
The 2018/2019 matriculation recorded 5,962 fresh students admitted to pursue various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the four colleges of the university out of a total of 16,923 applications received, and the number is fourteen percent (14%) higher than that of last academic year.
Out of the number, 5,266 are undergraduate students, while the rest, six hundred and ninety-six (696), are to pursue postgraduate programmes.
Whiles women constitute 41.6%, with 58.4% men in the undergraduate number, the postgraduate students have 35.9% women.
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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
