By Philip Tengzu,
Eremon, (UW/R), Feb. 17, GNA – Mr Bede A. Ziedeng, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lawra Constituency, has cautioned students in second cycle institutions against engaging in illegal electricity connections.
He said some students charged mobile phones through electricity bulb extensions and switches, resulting in fire outbreaks.
Mr Ziedeng gave the caution at the Eremon Senior High Technical School (SHTS) in the Lawra Municipality during a visit to the school to ascertain the level of damage caused by the fire disaster that engulfed a wing of the girls’ dormitory.
A total of 170 female students were displaced by the disaster and their belongings, including practical learning materials and machines, destroyed.
“Some of you students are using all sort of unorthodox means to draw power for whatever purpose whether for charging your phones or for cooking or for whatever, we can’t tell.
We have identified it and it shows that you dismantle the bulbs and fix things there to charge your phones or do other things”, the MP said.
Mr Ziedeng advised the students to focus on their studies but not to engage in any vices that could jeopardise their future development.
“Look at, perhaps, because of one person’s carelessness the way you are suffering. We should all avoid the use of electrical appliances unless we have been authorised to do so because I know in your technical training you will need electricity, but outside that don’t use any appliance,” he said.
The MP was also at the school to present some relief items to the affected students, including 170 student mattresses, and ten sewing machines at the cost of about GH₵64,000.00, from the MP’s Common Fund.
He also donated 170 pieces of sanitary pads, 170 pieces of towels, and nine bags (50kg) of gari valued at GH₵10,500.00 to the students from the benevolence of his family.
He said the items were to help stabilize the students to go on with their normal academic activities while steps were taken to fix the damage the fire caused to the dormitory block.
Mr Ziedeng indicated that through his statement in parliament, representatives of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) would soon visit the school to assess the damage and to see how to possibly commence the building of a new dormitory for them as soon as possible.
He thanked a former MP of the area, Mr Sampson Abu, and the Lawra Municipal Assembly for donating some relief items to the students.
Madam Paulina Azanbawu, the Lawra Municipal Director of Education, who received the items on behalf of the school, thanked the MP for the support and said the items would be used judiciously to benefit the students.
On his part, the Headmaster of the school, Mr Issah Ibrahim Shaibu, expressed appreciation to the MP for the support and also appealed for support to provide the victims with food and nutrition practical items that were also destroyed by the fire.
He said 130 of those practical items were destroyed, with one item costing about GH₵3000.00, which had been a serious headache for the students in procuring them.
GNA