Living in Fear

 

- GIJ students’ untold harrowing story

By Solomon Mensah

 

A mounted emblem of GIJ

“It was one Sunday when we had just closed from lectures. Walking home with two friends, at the Trust Financial Holdings intersection, we saw two guys on an unregistered motorbike,” Fiona recounts.

Fiona Wepia Edwards, a level 400 weekend student of Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), says the guys on the bike had passed by them earlier only for it to take a U-turn.

“We thought they wanted to ask us something but to our dismay, they took out their weapons [knives and other sharp blades]. My friends were quick to sense danger so they were able to run away leaving me helpless in the hands of the two strong men.”

Keeping calm in the midst of threats, Fiona’s thieves bolted with her belongings. This was in October, 2014.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven... the number of robbery cases keeps increasing. Intermittently, a student on his/her way home from school or to school would rush to campus in tears with regards to their bags and belongings being snatched by thieves; thieves who ply their trade on motorbikes.

For some time now, this has been the untold harrowing story of some students of GIJ. A number of the students have had to bear the brunt of these motorbike thieves in daylight robberies.

Laptops, cameras, cash among other valuable items have been taken from these students by these unsuspecting robbers. On the Garmel Abdul Nasser road, a stretch of road that lies in front of GIJ, the thieves would either whisk away the bag of a student walking on the road or get down from their bike to take such bags at knife point.

In 2013, a student sustained a knife wound in his palms for struggling with his attackers to prevent them from taking his bag. This male student’s incident was not the first to befall a GIJ student. Some of the victims have made attempts reporting to the police but it becomes a herculean task for the police to trace these thieves. Why? The motorbike thieves use unregistered bikes!

After a year and three months, Fiona’s unforgettable incident still brings tears into her eyes. Tears literally filled her eyes as I held my voice recorder to her mouth. She gathered courage, again, to continue her story. “They asked me to give them my bag, phone and everything on me. I was so scared that I complied and they left with my own belongings.”

The ‘belongings’ of Fiona comprised of a phone, digital camera, lecture notes and an amount of GHC1, 500. She laments that the money the thieves took away got her crazier. It was her two-year rent. As a matter of fact, she was on her way to pay it to her would-be landlord!

Fiona reported the case to the police but the thieves, on an unregistered bike, could not be traced.

If Fiona’s story made you shiver then wait till you hear that which made Felicity and her friends quiver.

Felicity Ampomah and her friends Janet and Perpetual, all GIJ students, have had their share of the motorbike thieves’ bitter cake.

I am taking a stroll together with Felicity and Janet on the Garmel Abdul Nasser road, starting from GIJ’s entrance, to bend on the right of Trust Financial Holdings to the ‘GIJ’ hostel. They will be recounting their horrible experience to me.

“It was Sunday, October 18, 2015,” Janet remembers. “Felicity Ampomah, myself and Perpetual-a friend- had closed from a weekend lecture. Walking to the ‘GIJ’ hostel, which is just a few meters away from the School, little did we know that Felicity’s bag would be whisked away from her by thieves.”

Janet, who lives at Madina, was to part ways with the others just before reaching the hostel’s gate. She says she became suspicious of two men on motorbike who rode pass them.

“They [two men on motorbike] came back, riding pass us. One of the guys looked at me that I became suspicious of them. I quickly stopped a taxi to the Police Headquarters junction for a bus to Madina, parting ways with my friends,” Janet says.

She had told Felicity and Perpetual to run as quickly as they could to their hostel before the suspected thieves came back to them.

Felicity says she “suddenly turned and saw them” and “told my friends to run” but before the sleek legs of the ladies could quickly carry them to the hostel, one of the guys jumped from the motorbike brandishing a knife at her.

Felicity had hatched a plan before being caught. “It occurred to me that I should just drop my bags in a nearby fenced house, which has wild dogs, so I go for the bags later.”

Her idea was good enough but she momentarily thought otherwise. “Then I asked myself, "What if they come to us and they don’t get anything from us?" They could hurt us with their weapons. So, I dropped one of the two bags into the house leaving with me another bag which contained ladies’ slippers that I sell.”

Eventually, she did not only have her bag snatched but had a hefty slap, too. She somewhat blocked it with her hands. This incident also happened in broad daylight and the story is not any different by the regular students.

Louisa Boadu, also a student of Ghana Institute of Journalism, seeing me interview Felicity and others came telling me yet another robbery case a friend endured on the same stretch of road.

So, are the authorities of Ghana Institute of Journalism aware of these happenings? And if they are, what plans do they have to avert this serial robbery?

Romeo Adzah Dowokpor is the President of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the Ghana Institute of Journalism. He spoke on the issue.

“I have heard of such unfortunate cases. We advise students to walk in groups,” he said.

“There have been reported cases of students being robbed in taxis with the connivance of the driver and his syndicates who act as passengers along the Quarters to campus route. Students should avoid boarding taxis from Quarters that have passengers in them,” he said.

Romeo says his office is working on fixing streetlights on the route from the Police Headquarters to campus to ensure visibility and improve on the security situation at night.

The robberies do happen at night but predominantly at day time. So, I asked the SRC president if he would consider security patrol on the route in question aside the provision of streetlights. This, his office could deduct an amount per student from the GHC90 SRC dues to foot the bill, I suggested.

Romeo says that is a laudable idea worth considering.

When I interacted with some of the students to ‘show by hand’ if they have heard, encountered or are worried about those robbery cases, a good number of them showed concern.

The students want their school’s authorities to urgently address the situation. Until then, the students reopen school in February, 2016 only to continue living in fear.

The writer is a student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and a freelance journalist.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

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