Press Aide to Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Kofi Abrefa Afena has taken a swipe at a news report alleging wrongdoing on the part of Energy Minister and former Minister for Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh in the matter of the appointment Prof. Eric Magnus Wilmot and Dr. Vincent A. Ankamah -Lomotey as Vice Chancellor and Registrar respectively, of the C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences in the Upper East Region.
Mr. Afena said the news report was purely based on mischief and has been intentionally skewed to sully the image of the Minister.
According to Mr. Afena, the first and foremost point is that, a Minister is not the appointing authority of officers of a public university.
He said, the university council does. However, the first appointments of any new public university are done by the President of the Republic and this include even the appointments of foundation governing councils.
“So, in the instant case of CKT-UTAS appointments, the situation was no different. You can check this incontrovertible fact from UG, KNUST, UENR, UESD and indeed, all public universities” he saidAddressing the issue of the post-retirement appointment accusations of the CKT-UHAS appointees against Dr. Prempeh, Mr. Afena described same as having no basis in truth and lacked logic, because, he said, when the two people were appointed, they were not retirees.
“In July 2021, when the officers reached their retirement age, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh was no more Minister for Education, at which time there was now a university council fully in place with legal capacity to be able to remedy the situation. So, on what grounds, do you accuse Matthew Opoku Prempeh of even the slightest of wrong doing or of something illegal or untoward”? he quizzed.
“He continued “Let people in positions be responsible for their actions without apportioning baseless blames on others” he addedMr. Afena rubbished the publication saying they were part of the grand scheme by the Energy Minister’s detractors to cause disaffection for him in the eyes of right-thinking Ghanaians for reasons best known to them.
This response from the Energy Minister’s outfit according to the Press Aide was necessitated because of deliberate spins around a court ruling by a Bolgatanga High Court terminating the appointments of Prof. Wilmot and Dr. Ankamah-Lomotey.
