Head of security at the University of Cape Coast, ACP (Retd) Johnson Owusu Agyemang is assuring the university community to stay calm before, during and after examination as his office collaborates with other stakeholders to beef up security.
Crime rate on the UCC campus and in surrounding communities usually shoots up during examination weeks.
After TV3 reported about the insecurity in the area in May this year, the Central Regional Police Command swooped on several suspected criminals during the second semester examination, but that did not deter the criminals.
The head of security at the university however assured, “we have the compliment of the police and they have patrol cars and we also have a vehicle so I believe that when we put them together, we can cover most of the areas during the night”.
The security personnel-student ratio on campus currently stands at 1 to 600 students which makes security checks practically challenging.
The situation has been worsened by inadequate logistics to work with.
Nonetheless, after holding a campus security meeting, ACP (Retd) Owusu Agyemang stressed: “We’re doing our best to maintain tranquillity so that students can learn and pass their examination, my men! They don’t sleep, we cannot say that we don’t have sufficient men and for that matter we will not work, we’re working assiduously!”.
Already, tight security arrangements have been put in place to check vehicles that ply the university to ensure the safety of the university community.
“Of late [some] taxi drivers were taking advantage to rob students, so university management decided that taxis operating on campus should have UCC embossed stickers,” he stated.
The security head also said the campus security meeting concluded that the SRC and the Graduate Students Association arrange buses to transport students who study on campus to their hostels from 7pm to 2am daily.
In addition, traditional leaders of communities like Amamoma, Akotokyire and Kwawpro have recruited natives to form community watchdog committees to assist the current security details to fight crime.
Whilst some students appear to have trust in the security arrangements, others feel it would be a nine day’s wonder!
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