Legon Female Molestation - Students Before Court

Nine students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, who are being held by the police for allegedly molesting a suspected laptop thief, Amina Haruna, may miss writing their semester examinations today, since the circuit court could not sit on the case yesterday to hear their request for bail.

After the students had spent about two hours in cells, the court told the prosecution and the defence teams that it could only sit on the case today.

When news filtered out that the case could not be heard, students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall who had trooped to the Cocoa Affairs Circuit Court in solidarity with their friends began to chant war songs calling for the release of the detained students to enable them to write their papers today.

It took counsel for the accused to impress on the students to tone down their voices and cool down, since they could disturb proceedings in some of the courts.

Counsel urged the students not to make any pronouncements or engage in any acts that could paint them in a bad light in the eyes of the judges.

However, when the detained students were put in a bus and driven back to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Police Service, the students, who were in black apparel, could not be restrained any longer.

They turned the entrance of the court into a 'jama' spot, singing, drumming and dancing to popular student tunes.

Some students and family members of the accused could not hold back their tears, claiming that the accused were innocent or simply victims of circumstance.

The accused, who are all residents of the Annex B (Okponglo) of the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the university, were identified by the university authorities on a video tape.

Their names are being withheld by the police for security reasons.

They were first handed over to the Legon Police, who in turn conveyed them to the CID Headquarters for an identification parade.

The hand over of the students was in fulfilment of an agreement which was reached between the police and the university authorities.

Soon after the alleged molestation, the university authorities set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the incident. It presented its findings to the Dean of Students and the Vice-Chancellor of the university.

The committee, according to a statement issued by the Registrar of the university, Mr J.S. Budu, identified a number of students who were present during the molestation, as seen on the video clips produced, as well as credible eyewitness accounts.