Some University of Ghana (UG) continuing students who were stranded due to the school’s new residential policy have made use of a Catholic church’s restroom as a place to sleep.
A student claimed in an interview with Citi News’ Kwaku Aduamah Ansah that they had no choice but to sleep in the hallways of other residence halls and occasionally in the restroom of a Catholic Church on campus.
“We slept in the corridors of Legon Hall on Monday, but on Tuesday, we didn’t get any place to sleep, so we went through the bush and went to the Catholic Church and went to their washroom to sleep. That is where we slept,” a student said.
Some Commonwealth Hall students were denied admission to their hall on Monday, January 16, 2023, by school security officers.
Following multiple incidents of conflict between Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah halls in the past, the new direction to transfer continuing students to other halls was issued.
Some of the stranded students asked the UG management to listen to their plea because the cost of the other accommodations was much out of their price range.
A level 300 student, Fred Oppong said, “I don’t have any relatives in Accra, so if I’m not being permitted to enter the hall, the best I can do is to loiter around till daybreak. I assumed the management will go by the court’s injunction, but the situation is different looking at the situation”.
The Commonwealth and Mensah Sarbah halls are the only ones that continuing students are permitted to occupy, as per the new residential policy, in order to make room for level 100 and graduate students.
Only the male continuing students will leave Mensah Sarbah Hall.
On January 6, 2023, some Commonwealth Hall students obtained an interlocutory injunction preventing the University of Georgia administration from enforcing the residence policy decision. However, some of the students charged the university administration with disobeying the court order.
