University Of Ghana Report On The Committee Of Enquiry Into The Disturbances Of 13th January, 1978: Breaches Of The Law
August 3, 2026
Transcript
University of Ghana
March 23, 1978
CHAPTER TWO
BREACHES OF THE LAW AND ESTABLISHED PROCEDURES AND INSTANCES OF IMPROPER BEHAVIOUR ASSOCIATED WITH THE EVENTS
SECTION 1 – INSTANCES OF IMPROPER BEHAVIOUR AND BREACHES OF THE LAW
A. Indecent Acts
Under the caption “Acts of Indecency” we have already the Police discussed the improprieties of in respect of females (see Section 1 Part 2(1) of Chapter One).
B. Tear Gas
The liberality with which tear gas was used was amazing. Equally surprising was its use in students’ rooms in an attempt to smoke students out for beating up. The Committee was alarmed to discover that some of the tear gas canisters recovered after the raid had on them an expiry date of May 1966. Witnesses who were victims reported that they were not only temporarily blinded, but felt burning sensations on the skin.
C. Denial of Medical Care to Injured Persons
The refusal of the police to permit serious cases of injury to be sent immediately to the hospital for medical attention was a demonstration of callousness of a high degree which calls for condemnation without reservation.
D. The Police Attack in the Morning of 13th January
Mr. Omane’s statement referred to in Chapter One of this Report has it that the Police had decided “to contain the situation by driving away the students from the Police Station to the campus.” As already observed, the students did not go to the Police Station. In any case, not only were students driven back to the campus from the Gate but they were pursued into rooms, kitchens, bars and sundry other places. Even if it is assumed that the student gathering at the Gate was such an unlawful assembly as to justify police intervention under the Public Order Decree 1972 to disperse it, the Committee would still consider the degree of Police violence against the students to be unlawful. The Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29) Section 32 imposes general limits on the use of force. By this provision, notwithstanding the existence of a legal justification for the application of force, the use of force is unlawful if it “extends beyond the amount and kind of force reasonably necessary for the purpose for which the force is permitted to be used.” Although it is true that under the Public Order Decree 1972 (Section 12), a superior police officer may cause the dispersal of unlawful meetings or processions, this power of dispersal is subject to the general limits on the use of justifiable force. As already noted in Chapter One of this Report, the Police did not warn the students before charging into them and no attempt was made to disperse the students peacefully. Furthermore, the co-operation of the University Authorities was not sought to achieve a peaceful dispersal of the students. Alternatively, if the justification claimed by the Police for their application of force is not under the Public Order Decree, but under the general authority of peace officers to use “necessary” force to keep the peace or preserve order at any place, again the Committee would consider the extent of force used to be unlawful because it exceeded by far what was “necessary” for the preservation of law and order.
E. The Police Invasion in the Afternoon of 13th January 1978
It is difficult to see any legal justification for the use of force during the second police invasion. There was no gathering to be dispersed in the afternoon. It is true that a policeman had been kidnapped on the campus and therefore there was justification for using reasonable force to retrieve him from the unlawful custody of his captors. But the evidence shows a generalised beating of anybody within reach. The Committee formed the impression that the Police had much less interest in making arrests than in using their truncheons. As a matter of fact, the evidence would seem to suggest that most of those arrested had not been offering resistance in any way. For the most part those taken to the Police Station and detained had done nothing which in law would justify their arrest. In at least one instance a Volta Hall student who had been cowering under her bed was severely beaten, taken to the Police Station and inexplicably charged with throwing stones! All that one can say is that Police action was not characterised by rationality or regard for the law.
F. The Police Attacks on 15th and 16th January, 1978
As already noted, there were attacks on persons both on the 15th and on the 16th January. Since several victims of the second police invasion on the 13th had in the course of their being beaten heard their tormentors explain their action by reference to the “murder” of a policeman, and since the “murdered” policeman had been recovered alive later that same day, it is not clear why the police should have been attacking people after 13th January.
