Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education has assured parents and staff of Okuapeman Senior High School that it will not be closed down.
An Accra High Court has granted permission to a family at Larteh, headed by Nana Asiamah Aboagye to take over a portion of land being occupied by Okuapeman SHS.
Even though the Eastern Regional Education Directorate has appealed against the ruling, family members keep threatening the school authority to vacate the 435 acres of land.
They have created pillars with red bands and moved there with machines to raze the entire school down if the school authority fails to vacate.
According to reports being gathered by The Ghanaian Times newspaper, the family intends to sell the land to private estate developers.
The school’s PTA Chairman, Mr. Nii-Ayitey Hammond, confirmed the news to Kwami Sefa Kayi in an interview on Monday and added that the Asiamah Aboagye family and Akyeamehene of Akropong were the ones laying claims to the land.
He said on the January 30, 2015, six men in the company of a court bailiff and an armed uniformed policeman came to the school to erect pillars with red bands.
“Currently the school is occupying about 139 acres of the land more than the meager 37.60 acres allocated to the school...the little land left for the school is also being claimed by the Akyeamehene of Akropong which meant the school had no land at all and if care was not taken the fate of the over 2000 students would be in danger” he indicated.
He therefore appealed to the Akuapem State, Ghana Education Service, Ministry of Education and President John Dramani Mahama, to come to the aid of the school
Speaking to the same issue on the same platform, Okudjeto Ablakwah described the situation as unfortunate and said the Ministry of Education, the family and other stakeholders will meet to find a resolution to the issue.
<<Print>>