KOSS murder: Lack of parental care is the cause of incident – Derek Oduro

Former Deputy Defence Minister, Major(rtd) Derek Oduro, has attributed the stabbing of a 15-year-old first-year student of Konongo Odumase Senior High School (KOSS) to lack of parental care and the absence of institutional values.

Five students of the Konongo Odumase Senior High School (KOSS) in the Ashanti Region, who are on trial for murder-related charges, have been remanded for roles played in the stabbing of a 15-year-old first-year student to death at Konongo Odumase Senior High School.

According to a police statement, the 5 KOSS students went on a bullying spree on the night of Friday, November 5, 2021, after prep hours leading to the attack on the deceased, Sam’un Larhan, 15.

Larhan Sam’un was stabbed with a knife by his colleague after he attempted to resolve a scuffle between the suspect and his mates.

Preliminary investigations by the Konongo Police Command show that the prime suspect, 17-year-old Emmanuel Frimpong was abusing some form-one KOSS students and upon resistance by some students, he stabbed the deceased.

In an interview with Atinka News’ after the incident, the District Police Commander for Konongo DSP Osei Adu Agyemang, said these five suspects who are all in form two ganged up and decided to go and bully the form-one KOSS students and assault some of them.

He revealed that the first-year students who felt that the action was uncalled-for resisted and were able to rescue one particular student from the grips of these five suspects, an act which infuriated the five suspects, and one of the suspects, Emmanuel Frimpong rushed on one of the first-year students in an attempt to slap him.

Commenting on the issue with host of Atinka FM’s AM Drive Kaakyire Ofori Ayim, Former Deputy Defence Minister, Major(rtd) Derek Oduro hinted that the current breed of Senior High students lack parental care and tuition since most parents are working tirelessly leaving their wards to fend for themselves.

He noted that these current students in Senior High Schools lack “home sense”.

“Lack of parental care and the absence of institutional values is the cause of some of these things. Most parents are working tirelessly leaving their wards to fend for themselves, they have failed to bring up their kids the right way. Some of these parents do not know the kind of friends their wards associate themselves with. These kids grow up and practice the bad deeds they learnt outside the home. Because no trained child will pick a knife to stab a fellow student,” Major(rtd) Derek Oduro told Kaakyire Ofori Ayim.