The Winneba High Court has ordered the reinstatement of Professor Mawutor Avoke as the substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW).
The court presided over by Justice Aboagye Tandoh, also ordered that the four other principal officers, who were also “unlawfully”, dismissed are to be reinstated to their former grade.
They are also to be paid all their salary arrears from the date they were unlawfully removed from their offices, the court ordered on Wednesday, February 2, 2022.
The decision by the court hopefully brings to an end, a five-year legal tussle that had bedevilled the administration of the UEW.
Court
In 2017, the Winneba High Court ordered Prof Avoke, to step aside until the case brought against him and the University’s Governing Council was determined.
The case was taken to court by one Supi Kofi Kwayera, who insisted that the Vice-Chancellor and the Finance Officer, were operating under the university’s defunct governing council.
The plaintiff argued that the University Council’s mandate expired in November 2013, but the Ministry of Education failed to constitute a new Governing Council for the university and rather allowed the defunct Governing Council which had no mandate whatsoever to continue in the functions of a properly formed Governing Council.
Supi Kofi Kwayera also alleged financial and procurement irregularities on the part of Prof Avoke.
The court, in July 2017, then ordered Prof Avoke to step aside until a case brought against him and the University’s Governing Council was determined.
Also in July, Prof Avoke, along with four others; the Finance Officer, Dr. Theophilus Senyo Ackorlie; Daniel Tetteh, Mary Dzimey and Frank Owusu Boateng, were interdicted by the university after it emerged that some vital documents at some offices at the centre of an ongoing investigation had disappeared.
They were then found guilty of procurement and other financial irregularities in December 2017.
The irregularities had to do with the monies paid to the contractors of the North Campus Roads project.
In August 2018, the UEW governing council dismissed the five principal officers of the institution after a fact-finding committee had been set up to look into the matter.
On May 2, 2018, the Winneba High Court, presided over by Mr Justice George Atto Mills-Graves, held that the Governing Council of the UEW appointed Prof Avoke as Vice-Chancellor overstayed its tenure as stipulated by law.
It was partly based on that court decision that Prof Avoke was removed and allegations of procurement infractions emerged.
When the issue got to the Supreme Court, it quashed the judgment by the Winneba High Court that declared the Governing Council of the UEW as illegal.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
