National Security operatives Monday night pulled down a tollbooth being erected by the University of Ghana to collect road tolls from motorists entering the university.

National Security Coordinator, Col.  Larry Gbevlo Lartey (retd.), confirmed the demolition to Joy FM's Super Morning Show.

He said the university authorities have no right to put up the tollbooth at the Okponglo section of the road leading to the university campus.

"The next time they put another block there we will go and remove it; that structure cannot be there! he said.

Mr. Gbevlo Lartey rejected suggestions that he ought to have consulted the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Ernest Aryittey, before embarking on the demolition exercise. 

"I don't have to speak to Vice Chancellor about this exercise; that structure is in Ghana...I won't go and bother the vice chancellor about this...we are dealing completely with the head of security," he stated.

The National Security Coordinator said suggestions that he ought to have waited for the outcome of a legal tussle over the collection of the toll by the university before pulling down the structure.

He said the structure would be complete by the time the courts adjudicate the matters and any attempt then to pull down the completed structure would be met with criticism.

"This is the human face; it will be done right at the inception...you speak to people in the language they understand...

The decision of the University of Ghana to institute a tolling system on its roads has riled many.

Government’s appeals to the university to stop collecting the tolls have been ignored with the authorities insisting that they will only stop collecting the tolls if the government pays a loan of $2.3 million they took to build the roads.

Civil society organisations, the Students' Representative Council of the university, as well as Parliament, have all opposed the collection of the tolls.

Some students have brought an action against the University in court.

But the authorities have remianed resolute.

JoyNews' Manasseh Azure Awuni reported that inspite of Monday's action by the National Security, the collection of the tolls is still being done.