The St Bernadette’s Technical Institute in Navrongo, Kassena-Nankana Municipality in the Upper East Region has been closed following student riots. 

The students were said to be protesting the decision of management to prevent them from engaging in inter-ethnic football games. 

Four personnel of the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Police Command sustained various degrees of injuries following altercation with some students at the school when the police officers attempted to intervene. 

The police officers including Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr Kinsley Kanda, the Municipal Police Commander who sustained a fracture in the leg, are currently receiving treatment at the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo. 

Twenty-seven students and a teacher were arrested and are being processed for court. 

Mr Joseph Adongo, the Municipal Chief Executive for the area, who confirmed this to the Ghana News Agency, noted that preliminary investigations revealed that the riot started on Saturday, May 13, 2023, because of a football game related issue. 

He said the students were alleged to have engaged in playing football on tribal lines without the notice of management and when management heard of it, it moved to stop them and asked the students not to engage in inter-ethnic games on campus. 

However, the students disobeyed the order and returned to play the football match the following day along tribal lines and the management went again to stop them. 

This, he said, infuriated the students who protested and went on rampage against some staff of the school pelting stones and other objects at them and destroying some property including a notice board. 

“In the evening, they started throwing stones, so, they brought the police in but the first, second and third teams of police officers could not disperse the students until the fourth team was able to stop them and they wounded four police officers and as we speak now, they are receiving treatment at the hospital,” he said. 

He said some police officers were currently on campus to ensure law and order while the Municipal Security Council would convene a meeting when the health condition of the police commander improved. 

When the GNA visited the school, there were no students and teachers, only police officers were stationed on the school’s campus.