High court orders re-instatement of student

Kumasi, Jan. 21, GNA- A High court in Kumasi on Monday ordered the authorities of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to immediately reinstate Afram Ochia, a Nigerian Law student, who was dismissed by the University for allegedly engaging in occultism and also for his involvement in a shooting incident at "Maxima" near the educational institution.

The court presided over by Mr. Justice Adu Ampomah, also asked the officials to the release the certificate of the plaintiff, who by the time of dismissal had completed his final examination for the award of a degree in Law and Sociology at the Faculty of Law at the University. The court also quashed the decision by the Faculty of Law of KNUST for dismissing Ochia and awarded the cost of GH=A2 500 against the University.

Ochia, who was said to have completed his course read about his dismissal on the internet in Nigeria and flew back to Ghana to verify only to be handed with his dismissal letter. He consequently filed a suit at the High court to declare the decision of the University null and void.

In a statement of claim filed on behalf of the plaintiff, by Mr. Yaw Owoahene Acheampong, a Kumasi-based lawyer, Ochia said he was admitted into the University in 2001/2002 academic year as a foreign student to pursue a four-year degree programme in Law and Sociology. According to the statement, Ochia was supposed to have completed his course during the 2004/2005 academic year but he was referred in three of his examination papers.

It said the applicant returned to the University in February 2006 and wrote the referred papers with the conviction that, he would pass those papers and was therefore, looking forward for his graduation to signify the formal completion of his study at the University, only to read his expulsion from the University on the internet. The statement said that the applicant found the dismissal outrageous since the letter did not link him to any wrongful act supposedly committed by him and thereby warranting his dismissal. Ochia argued in his statement that, he was not staying on campus as a regular student when the said shooting incident occurred, adding that, the dismissal was a device to deprive him the right to enjoy the fruit of his labour.