At a meeting convened by the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) local chapter of UTAG on Wednesday 18th September, 2018, notice of impending UTAG-UEW Executives elections was pushed down the throats of a majority of the members present, by the Kaakyire led administration.
Nominations were scheduled to open immediately after the meeting at 6pm, and close on Tuesday 24th September, 2019, at 5pm.
Campaigning was then penciled to officially start on Wednesday 25th September, 2019, and end on Thursday 26th September, 2019 (just 2 days to campaign), with the elections taking place on Friday 27th September, 2019.
This appeared from the onset to be a well orchestrated plan by the incumbent Executives to capitalize on their popularity/or unpopularity to retain power, since they had been on the ‘scene’ for quite a while, including issuing an unconstitutional statement on 23rd July, 2019, calling on all lecturers of UEW, to open their arms and welcome Prof. Avoke back as Vice-Chancellor (VC) of UEW, on the advice of a certain crook.
Interestingly, Prof. Avoke, in his own words, later acknowledged that he had been “naive”, for acting the way he did.
Some of my colleague lecturers mooted the idea of going to court to seek an injunction against the harsh, onerous and unreasonable decision to call the elections at a very short notice, but I advised against it. I emphasized that with hard work, Kaakyire and his side kicks, could be swept away with the thumb on Friday 27th September, 2019.
The elections therefore came off as scheduled, without UEW Kumasi and Mampong campuses participating, as had been held by the Court of Appeal earlier, which was exactly what Dr. Frimpong Kaakyire Duku, the defeated and humiliated UTAG-UEW President, prayed the Court for. Only Winneba and Ajumako campuses lecturers, took part in the elections.
The whole electoral process at the polling booths, was video recorded, and Security Personnel were on hand to forestall any attempt to disrupt the polls.
No incident of electoral malpractice was reported at the scene throughout the exercise. All polling agents signed the declaration of poll forms without any complaints.
Having been comprehensively defeated on his own terms by the Eric Sakyi Nketiah team, Frimpong Kaakyire Duku, Ahmed Jinapor, Ali Mohammed and Lani Ashong, it is gathered, are running to the High Court come Monday 30th September, 2019, to challenge the outcome of the elections, based on electoral fraud, perceived only by them from afar. Even their polling agents who were at the polling station from 8.30am to 4pm on Friday September 27, did not witness this alleged fraud.
This rumoured court action is most welcome, for in the words of Asiedu Nketiah, aka General Mosquito, “any idiot can go to court”
Alhassan Salifu Bawah
(son of an upright peasant farmer)
