Investigate Conti female ‘harassment’ - Minister

The Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has urged the authorities of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to investigate the harassment of female students by the male counterparts of Unity Hall (Conti).

Speaking to Accra-based Citi FM, Prof Yankah said “the major issue about the harassment of women, I was really outraged by that. I am expecting the university to immediately institute investigations into this and the culprits brought to book.”

“…Very firmly, I must state that we must set a good example. We cannot accept the harassment of students when they are strictly complying with laid-down procedure by the law and by the university,” Professor Yankah added.

His comments come after a viral video on social media portrays the males chasing and mobbing some female students, as the girls tried escaping from them.

In one of the scenes, a female student trying to escape from a bare-chested male fell flat on the floor after losing her balance.

However, school authorities say the video circulating has been misinterpreted by the public.

Public Relations Officer of the university, Kwame Yeboah Jnr said what transpired in the video was not harassment, but rather some students having fun.

He admitted that the event occurred at the Unity Hall, but clarified that the actors were a group of fresh students “having fun” after their orientation.

“The video you saw was done in the Unity Hall…they had an orientation at Unity Hall, after the event, the students decided to just have some fun. I’m told they were playing the ‘one corner’ music and they were dancing,” Mr. Yeboah told Accra-based Class FM.

"The guys were dancing and were trying to pull some of the ladies to dance with them and in the course of that, one fell, so, there was nothing there that showed that anybody was being harassed. We have our security there, we have some policemen also around and so we haven’t had any report but rather some people are putting a spin on the video,” he added.