Ahigh court in the Upper East region has received a motion to put the vice-chancellor of the Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU), Prof. Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, and the registrar of the institution, Zangu-Rana Ibrahim Yakubu, behind bars for alleged contempt of court.
A private legal practitioner, Sheikh-Arif Abdullah, filed the motion in connection with a case brought before the court earlier by a popular Bolgatanga-based advocate for good governance, John Paul Danka, against three members of the university’s governing council. Â
“Please, take notice that this honourable court shall be moved by counsel for and on behalf of the applicant herein praying for an order to commit the respondents herein to prison for contempt of court as per the grounds contained in the accompanying affidavit,” the lawyer wrote in the motion filed on December 19, 2024.
Danka hauled the three individuals— Prof. Francis Abatanga who chairs the governing council, Prof. Alfredina Z.P. Kuupole and Freeman Abramani— before the court after the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, extended their already-expired tenure to January 6, 2025.
The plaintiff (Danka) stated that the extension breached the university’s statutes and asked that the court stop the three members from serving further on the council.
In addition to that civil suit, Danka’s lawyer, Abdullah, also filed a motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction retraining the three individuals (defendants) from holding themselves out as members of the council.
Basis of contempt motion
On Wednesday, 18 December, Danka filed a motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction seeking to restrain the vice-chancellor and the registrar (the respondents) from implementing decisions taken by the university’s governing council.
His reason was that the council was not properly constituted and not inaugurated by the President of Ghana or the Minister for Education as the law required.
Despite the court serving the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction on the vice-chancellor and the registrar, they reportedly did not refrain from implementing council decisions taken at a meeting held from November 6 to November 8, 2024.
The said meeting reportedly saw a resolution passed that additional responsibilities be assigned to the subordinate of Lucy Afeli, the head of the school’s internal audit department. Afelik had spoken out on Friday, 12 July 2024, against an attempt by some of the school’s authorities to appoint Solomon Awariya, a senior accountant, as a deputy director of finance.
Awariya was promoted to the rank of senior accountant in 2023. He must serve for at least 6 years as a senior accountant before he can be appointed a deputy director of finance, as stipulated by the Scheme of Service for Staff of Technical Universities in Ghana. That is to say that Awariya would be qualified to be appointed a deputy director of finance in 2029.
Other decisions taken at the alleged meeting
The alleged meeting also saw the vice-chancellor and the registrar issue a query letter to the university’s substantive director of finance, Stephen Gbambil Tabazaa, concerning some reports lodged with the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) about some violations said to have been perpetrated by the university’s management.
The vice-chancellor and the registrar allegedly also recommended at the governing council’s meeting that Tabazaa, who is reportedly being victimised at the school for kicking against some “internal misdeeds” in the best interests of society, be placed on terminal leave.
The respondents also recommended that Tabazaa’s subordinate, Solomon Awariya, the senior accountant mentioned earlier, be appointed to act as the university’s director of finance.
Writing to the court in support of the lawyer’s motion for contempt, Danka said the vice-chancellor and the registrar “were deliberate and willful in total disregard of the application for interlocutory injunction” and that their “actions undermine the dignity and authority” of the court.
Danka further stated that the governing council meetings reportedly being convened and organised by the vice-chancellor and the registrar were causing financial loss to the university through “approval of unbudgeted projects and contracts” and “unlawful authorisation of allowances and payments to council members.”
He said the vice-chancellor and the registrar would continue to disregard judicial processes, thereby undermining the rule of law, if the court did not intervene.
Media Without Borders learns Danka also has secured some exhibits to tender in court in support of his claims that the respondents facilitated council meetings and implemented council decisions after the motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction was served on them.
The court is scheduled to sit on Monday, 13 January 2025, to hear the motion for contempt filed against the vice-chancellor and the registrar.
The developments at BTU are part of a string of unusual happenings emerging at public tertiary institutions across the country under the watch of the Director-General of the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Prof. Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
