Citizen Sues for Removal of UG Vice-Chancellor from Office

A private citizen, Robert Ishmael Aggrey-Fynn Amissah, has sued the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, at the High Court, asking for the Vice Chancellor’s removal from office.

Mr Aggrey-Fynn Amissah is contesting the legitimacy of Prof. Owusu’s stay in office following an earlier High Court decision that quashed the appointment processes for then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, Professor Mawutor Avokeh.

Prof. Avoke was said to have been appointed by a defunct governing council.

Mr Aggrey-Fynn argues that the situation as pertained in the University of Education at the time also equally prevails at the University of Ghana.

The applicant, together with some other Ghanaians, early last week, wrote to the university urging the Vice-Chancellor to step down.

This notice was however not complied with, necessitating this suit.

Mr Aggrey-Fynn Amissah told Citi News, he is now seeking the immediate removal of Professor Oduro Owusu from office given the precedent already set in Winneba.

“We are asking that the VC [Vice Chancelor] should be relieved of his duties. The decision of the Winneba High Court in the Supi Kwayeracase set the tone that all governing councils, as of 2013, became defunct and illegitimate and therefore, those governing councils  did not have the right to operate.”

“If so had been determined by the Winneba High Court, it is not exclusive to the University of Education, Winneba. It falls within the same parameters of that of the University of Ghana, Legon, and therefore, the Vice-Chancellor should be relieved of his duties,” he explained.

Background to UEW litigation

A Winneba High Court in July ordered the Vice-Chancellor of UEW, Professor Mawutor Avokeh, to step aside until a case brought against him and the University’s Governing Council was determined.

The order also affected the institution’s Finance Officer.

The order was made in a case brought before the court by Supi Kofi Kwayera who insisted that the Vice-Chancellor and the Finance Officer were operating under the institution’s defunct governing council.

The plaintiff held that the University’s Council’s mandate had expired in November 2013, but the Education Ministry failed to constitute a new Governing Council for the university.

Instead, the ministry allowed and permitted the defunct Governing Council which had no mandate whatsoever to continue the functions of a duly constituted Governing Council as if same had been duly constituted.

This, Mr Kwayera insisted was unlawful, and hence his legal action against the University of Education, Winneba.

The order from the court was described as an attack on academic freedom, hence the agitation from some lecturers.