Gbevlo Justified In Demolishing Legon Toll Booth�School Authorities Erred; They Should�ve Known Better

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Ade Coker, believes the pulling down of the University of Ghana (UG) toll booth by National Security operatives would have been avoided if the school authorities had listen to good counsel. According to him, UG authorities disregarded any direction as to how to go about recouping the $2.3 million loan it says it contracted for infrastructural development on campus and rather insisted on collecting user charges to pay back the loan. �I thought the University of Ghana would have exercised a bit of patience with the idea of collecting tolls by including all its stakeholders in a way forward to finding solution to the problem but there was stalk impunity shown by the university. The question I want to ask is�as a nation, what do we want?� he questioned. He added that, �When this issue of the toll collection came up, the Chief of Staff, Minister of Transport and the students campaigned against it�the school authorities should have rescinded their decision and look at how best to resolve the issue, but they refused and even snubbed the President�s (John Mahama) appeal as well�. Mr. Coker comment follows the unilateral destruction of a toll booth at the entrance of the University of Ghana by national security goons. National Security Coordinator Larry Gbevlo Lartey has explained that the booth needed to be pulled down because it was sited at the wrong place and was a threat to human security as well as causing congestion. He justified the demolishing by saying that is the language the security at the University understood and so they needed to deal with the issue in such terms. Commenting on the issue on Peace FM�s morning show �Kokrokoo�, Ade Coker maintained that the toll booth needed to be pulled down to ease the heavy traffic which had steadily been building up as a result of the citing of the toll booth near a major road. He however cautioned against politicizing the legon toll booth demolition since that will not serve the country any good.