Students of the University of Ghana yesterday (Friday, January 31, 2014) sued authorities of the University at the Supreme Court over the introduction of road tolls by the authorities. The court action was led by Musah Mutapha (level 400) and Ernest Appau (a graduate of Legon).
Their writ of summons dated January 29, 2014, is seeking an order directed at the University to refrain them from charging vehicle users who use the roads, “within 1st Defendant’s campus any road usage and user charges as far as the said charges are not made pursuant to an Act of Parliament in the intendment of Article 174(1) of the Constitution, 1992”.
They are also seeking amongst others, a declaration from the Supreme Court that “upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 174(1) of the Constitution, 1992; the road usage and user charges 1stDefendant seeks to charge vehicle users who use the roads within 1st Defendant’s campus with effect from the 1st day of February, 2014 amounts to taxation”.
Acting as concerned citizens of the country, the students are also seeking “A declaration that 1st Defendant’s decision to exempt in the interim its members of staff from paying the road usage and user charges it seeks to introduce from the 1st day of February, 2004 is an abuse of its discretionary power in the intendment of Article 296(a) of the Constitution, 1992”.
Earlier, the Students Representive Council (SRC) kicked against the introduction of road tolls but authorities of the University of Ghana insist that motorists, who cannot pay tolls to ply the university roads, should find alternative routes.
On the same day (Friday, January 31, 2014), the Legon SRC President, Eric Edem Agbana, led a petition to the Parliament of Ghana over the same issue on behalf of students of the University of Ghana. myJCR Legon report, Edward Sekyere witnessed the presentation of the petition at the Parliament House in Accra. The petition was received by two clerks on behalf of the Speaker of Parliament.
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