The Labour Division of the Accra High Court has dismissed a suit filed by the dismissed Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, Professor Mawutor Avoke, seeking to overturn his removal.
The Judge said the case was beyond the court’s jurisdiction.
Prof Avoke is challenging his removal as Vice Chancellor, arguing that the processes used in getting him out were illegal.
[contextly_sidebar id=”wUzAfBsUh3WR5ZRikIWbcyk6nToZA5Gf”]This comes days after the new vice-chancellor, Rev. Prof. Fr. Anthony Afful-Broni was inducted into office.
Speaking to Citi News, the lawyer for the defendants and Effutu MP, Alexander Afenyo Markin, said the court ruling affirmed the fact that Prof. Avoke’s removal was not illegal.
“The Labour Division of the High Court dismissed the entire origination summons for want of jurisdiction and further added that the ex parte motion seeking certain restraining reliefs was also borne out of bad faith and was an abuse of the process of the court,” he explained.
This means “lawyers for the applicants, in this case, Professor Atuguba and company, must stop their emotional attacks in the media, stop tribal comments and concentrate on the law,” Mr. Afenyo Markin added.
Induction controversy
Ahead of the induction ceremony for Afful-Broni, Professor Raymond Atuguba had claimed that ethnocentric sentiments led to the removal of Prof. Avoke.
“When a change of government occurred in January 2017, a certain cabal (for lack of a better word) that is associated with Winneba saw this as an opportunity to change principal officers of the University of Education, Winneba. After acting as Lawyer for the victims of this move, I can only conclude that the only real reason for their removal was ethnocentric. So Vice Chancellor Avoke, Finance Officer Akorlie, and bearers of similar such names had to go.”
Prof Avoke, together with the six other officers of the University, were removed by the Governing Council in August 2018.
They were first interdicted in July 2017 by the UEW governing council to allow for investigations after it emerged that some vital documents at some offices at the centre of an ongoing investigation had gone missing.
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By: Duke Mensah Opoku/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
