Bawku tension: MCE calls for security protection for school kids

As basic schools resume on January 18, the Bawku Municipal Assembly, in the Upper East Region, says more security deployment is required to guarantee the safety of pupils following renewed chieftaincy disturbances in the area.

The assembly plans to ensure security escorts for students in tertiary and second cycle institutions in Bawku.

Speaking to Citi News, the Bawku Municipal Chief Executive, Amadu Hamza, said, it will be difficult to protect school pupils from the feuding factions in all basic schools if the government does not deploy more security personnel to the area.

“The minister and I are working day in and day out to ensure that we get security to escort students to go in there and also to ensure their safety while they are in school.”

He noted, for example, that “there are some Kusasis who are in there. They are afraid when they come, their lives are going to be in danger.”

The Municipal Chief Executive of Bawku, Amadu Hamza, says his outfit is reviewing security measures to sustain peace in the area.

There was gunfire in parts of the town in December last year following attempts to perform final funeral rites for a Chief who died about 41 years ago.

The Upper East Regional Security Council, among other things, placed a ban on the wearing of a smock and banned male pillion riders.

Outside the school kids, Mr. Hamza, said the security escort is being provided for the feuding factions in an attempt to prevent an attack.

His overall plan is to prevent such tensions from flaring up and disrupting the community.

Mr. Hamza noted that the effects of the tensions were even affecting revenue generation.

“As we talk right now, the women have deserted the market. They have formed artificial markets. It is difficult to get in these taxes,” he said as an example.

---citinewsroom