A Level 300 BSc. Education (Physics) student of the University of Ghana and a presidential candidate in the Alexander Kwapong Hall JCR Elections who was disqualified from contesting in the election has sued the vice-chancellor over his disqualification.
The other defendants in the action are the dean of student affairs of the University of Ghana, Senior Tutor, JCR president and electoral commissioner of the Alexander Kwapong Hall.
Facts of the action
Caleb Elorm Kadu (The plaintiff) says in his “Statement of Claim” that “on 14 May 2021, the Electoral Commissioner submitted the names of all candidates who were desirous of contesting for the various portfolios opened for elections and had filed nominations to the Dean of Student Affairs for clearance and approval”.
Again, “on the 18th of May 2021, the Dean of Student Affairs released a letter clearing nine (9) of the ten candidates as qualified to contest in Alexander Kwapong Hall JCR elections”.
Kadu, says that he was cleared by the Dean of Student Affairs as qualified to contest for the Presidency. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the JCR Elections was divided into two (2) phases in line with the University of Ghana’s new modular system.
He notes that “he contested in the first phase of the JCR elections which was held on the 21st of May 2021. After the first phase of the elections, the Dean of Student Affairs was petitioned by one Andy Ackah Enyimah to disqualify the Plaintiff from participating in the JCR elections”.
Caleb Elorm Kadu, father states that “on the 18th of June 2021, he received a letter from the Dean of Student Affairs disqualifying him as a Presidential candidate in the Alexander Kwapong Hall JCR Elections without being given a hearing in contravention of Article 23 of the 1992 Constitution and the “Audi Alteram Partem” principle of natural justice”.
Reliefs sought
The plaintiff states that he has exhausted all internal avenues available to him in resolving this issue but to no end. To this end, he is seeking six (6) reliefs in his action instituted against the University of Ghana.
First, “a declaration that the Plaintiff is qualified to contest the Presidential race of the Alexander Kwapong Hall Junior Common (JCR) Elections and second, a declaration that the Plaintiff’s purported disqualification by the Dean of Student Affairs was unlawful and illegal and therefore null and void and of no legal effect.
The third relief he is seeking is “an interlocutory injunction directed against the Defendants, their privies, agents and assigns and persons howsoever described from interfering with the Plaintiff’s candidature in the Alexander Kwapong Hall JCR Presidential Elections.
Fourth, Kadu wants “a perpetual injunction directed at the Defendants, their privies, agents and assigns and persons howsoever described restraining the same from interfering with the Plaintiff’s candidature in the Alexander Kwapong Hall JCR Presidential Elections”.
His last two reliefs are an order directing the Defendants to re-instate the Plaintiff’s candidature in the Alexander Kwapong Hall JCR Presidential Elections and an order directed at the Defendants compelling the Defendants to allow the Plaintiff to contest in the Alexander Kwapong Hall JCR Presidential Elections.
Wilberforce Asare
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