The decision by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Ablekuma West Constituency, George Cyril Bray, to build a public hospital on the Ebenezer Senior High School campus as part of the Agenda 111 initiative has drawn harsh criticism from former students of the school.
The group, comprising both current and past students of the school, has accused the MCE of “forcefully, rudely and inhumanly” encroaching on lands belonging to the school, to execute the project.
“In this current age and level of civilization, such primitive and slavish acts are still going on within the Ghanaian set-up. The MCE of Ablekuma West is forcefully, rudely and inhumanly taking over a portion of the Ebenezer Secondary school land, which we feel is improper and we as old students have taken action against him,” past president of the Old Students Association, Dr. Nii Addo Bruce said.
The former students are disputing the need to build a public hospital on school property when there are other suitable sites outside the school that have been set aside for that purpose.
“Why in the world would you place a hospital in the midst of students who are learning?” Dr. Nii Addo Bruce, former president of the Old Students Association, questioned.
He pointed out certain current infrastructure issues, such as a shortage of classrooms and bungalows, which require the government’s focus instead of the hospital’s construction. The alumni association of the school has pledged to oppose the encroachment and has urged the government to reconsider its decision.
The Agenda 111 initiative is a government program with the objective of building 111 hospitals nationwide.
The move by the alumni of Ebenezer SHS comes weeks after the Chief and elders of Mpoase urged the government to intervene and address the Municipal Chief Executive’s encroachment on the land of Ebenezer Senior High School for the implementation of the Agenda 111 project.
The Mpoase Mantse, Nii Adote Din Barima I, who made the call at a press conference in Accra, described the move by the MCE as a mark of “disrespect, arrogance, a show of political power, and an act without any recourse to the chief and elders of Mpoase,” he said.
The Mpoase Mantse said the land was released and earmarked for the school’s development saying that, “the school was originally sited on a 90-acre plot of land, however, the public had encroached on 45 plots, so that could not justify the need for another plot for the hospital project, particularly on the school’s compound without recourse to the school.”