The Cape Coast High Court has dismissed a suit challenging the legitimacy of the Vice-Chancellor of University of Education (UEW) Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni by his predecessor.
The suit was filed by six dismissed administrative staff of the university led by former Vice-Chancellor Prof.Mawutor Avoke.
The six had sought among other reliefs a declaration that their dismissal was flawed as a purported Economic and Organized Crime(EOCO) report had exonerated them of any culpability to warrant dismissal by the erstwhile Governing Council of the University.
While the University, through the Governing Council, had on many occasions denied ever filing a complaint with EOCO to conduct any investigation on the dismissed staff, the plaintiffs through their lawyer Dr. Raymond Atuguba and interested party Lawyer Alexander Afenyo-Markin had always relied on the said EOCO report to push for the reinstatement of the six dismissed staff.
The tango over the purported EOCO report reached a crescendo when at a point two versions of the said report were filed by the two lawyers and that witnessed a contestation by the defendant’s Lawyer Paa Kwesi Abaidoo.
The trial judge on two occasions when she had expressed her readiness to rule on the matter had to step down her decision for the plaintiffs to file what was finally said to be the official EOCO report.
However, ruling on the matter Monday, the trial judge Her Ladyship Justice Mills Tetteh dismissed the application of the plaintiffs calling for the removal of Prof. Afful-Broni as the legitimate Vice-Chancellor of UEW and subsequent relief of he being replaced by Prof. Mawutor Avoke.
She explained the he cannot be granted leave by the court to be reinstated as the EOCO document they are relying on lacks credibility and cannot pass a judicial test.
Lawyer for the university Paa Kwesi Abaidoo asked for cost to be awarded against the plaintiffs for wasting his clients and court’s time but the judge did not award any cost.