UEW To Embark On Reconciliation – Management

The Management of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) has said efforts to promote reconciliation among the feuding parties on its campus will happen soon.

This follows the impasse at the institution which led to rioting and subsequent shutdown of the school.

Students returned to school earlier this month following the re-instatement of three of the dismissed lecturers.

The University has been the hotbed of wrangling and legal action especially among the senior ranks of administrators resulting in the removal of a Vice-Chancellor and the investiture of a new one.

Speaking to Citi News, PRO of the University, Ernest Azutiga said although all the problems have not been resolved, calm has returned to the institution.

“There have been moves to reconcile the school and that is important. It has started and we hope that it will continue to take different dimensions and different shapes and then as we move on we will be a reconciled hold and move on from there.”

The Governing Council dismissed Prof. Avoke after the Winneba High Court in 2017 asked Prof Avoke to step aside until a case brought against him and the University's Governing Council was determined.

The Management of the school subsequently indicated that Prof. Mawutor Avoke will not be reinstated.

According to the University, although an Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) report exonerated him, the decision for his dismissal was determined by the institution's Governing Council.

In an interview with Citi News, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of UEW, Ernest Azutiga said the institution welcomes Prof Avoke's call to work with all and sundry for peace to prevail in the university but shot down his reinstatement request.

“On his call to work with everyone to bring peace to the institution, I think it is in the right direction because that is what management and Council are working towards; bringing peace and reconciliation into the institution. He also asked that he should be reinstated, but the question will be what will be the basis for the reinstatement. What I gather from his presser is that he has been exonerated by EOCO.”

“There was a Supreme Court ruling that quashed the Winneba High Court ruling on him. The situation is that in that very Supreme Court ruling the judges made it clear that the decision to dismiss him was not based on EOCO reports. In fact, UEW had not made any formal complaints to EOCO. Based on the arguments he is making it will be impossible to reinstate him,” the PRO added.

Prof. Mawutor Avoke at a press conference on Tuesday demanded an immediate reinstatement.

He also wanted the feuding factions at the school to unite and resolve their difference in the interest of the university.

He said he was ready to work together with the current VC, Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni and the Chairman of the University’s Governing Council, Prof. Emmanuel Abekah but first, they should rise above their parochial interests.

—citinewsroom