Accra, Oct. 29, GNA - Professor Yaw Agyemang Badu, Deputy Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), on Monday told the High Court in Accra hearing a suit challenging the eligibility of Prof. Samuel Adei, Rector of GIMPA, to hold himself as a Professor, that he has travelled out of the country on official duties. Professor Adei could therefore not be in court when the case was called.

Mr Egbert Faibille, Managing Editor of the Ghanaian Observer Newspaper, has filled a suit at the High Court challenging the eligibility of Prof. Adei holding himself as a Professor when the GIMPA Governing Council had not conferred that title on him. The suit is also challenging the expiry of his term of office as the Rector of the Institute.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice K. A. Acquaye adjourned the case to November 14 for continuation.

Nene Amegatcher, Counsel for the Defence, in his submission prayed the court to strike out the suit because the plaintiff had no locus standi in the case since he was not a student of GIMPA and had not in any way been affected by any action of the defendant. He said the court should not entertain such suits since they would encourage many people to wake up one day and bring up such frivolous issues against public office holders and this was likely to create chaos in the system.

He said the plaintiff should do the right thing by channelling his concerns to the appropriate authorities such as the Governing Council of the Institute, which had the mandate to look into such matters rather than bringing a suit against the defendant when in the first place he had no locus standi in the case.

Nene Amegatcher also advised the plaintiff to take legal counsel to represent him since he was a party to the case and it would not be proper for him (Egbert) to represent himself and at the same time be in the witness box.

Mr Faibille, who is a lawyer and is representing himself, pleaded with the Court to dismiss the application of the defence for conditional appearance in the case.

He said the application of the defence was an insult to the court and should be struck out completely.