C-Poly Rejects Rector

A GROUP calling itself the �Concerned Staff of Cape Coast Polytechnic� will soon drag the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government and the National Council of Tertiary Education (NCTE) to a Cape Coast High Court. The group has accused the two parties of allegedly trying to impose staunch NDC member, Dr Lawrence K. Atepor on them as rector of the school even though he is not qualified for the position. The group comprising mainly �Cape Coasters� claimed peace will likely elude the polytechnic if the selection process for the rectorship is grossly abused by government, the school�s Council Chairman, Dr Ato Cobbina and the NCTE. At a press briefing on Wednesday, Spokesperson for the group, Emmanuel Offei Appiah said the Council Chairman, Dr Cobbina, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Joseph Annan and the NCTE had allegedly forced former C-Poly rector, Prof Robert Nkum to resign to enable them appoint an unqualified member of their party to manage the institution. Mr. Offei stated that although the original vacancy advertised in the dailies on February 24, 2011 required that applicants must have attained ten years post doctoral working experience in a tertiary or analogous institution, it was later reduced to ten years managerial working experience in the May dailies. He disclosed that although applicants were supposed to send their application to the registrar, Dr Cobbina allegedly unilaterally arranged with the NCTE to receive applications, submitting them to the search committee secretariat at the Institute of Professional Studies (IPS). Mr. Offei added that two people who applied for the position were earlier on disqualified. He said Dr Atepor and his cousin also applied although Dr Atepor has only seven years working experience and does not qualify for the position. He added that Dr Atepor joined the polytechnic in 1997 and was granted study leave with pay for his PhD in 2005 and returned to the polytechnic in 2009. �It will be bad for one to think he has enough experience just by virtue of obtaining a PhD. He was just promoted to a senior lectureship position in 2010 under the chairmanship of Dr Ato Cobbina,� he said. Mr. Offei expressed concern about the way a cross section of the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) branch at C-Poly were supporting the alleged evil intentions of the council chairman and urged them to stay away from the issue in the best interest of the institution. �Where were POTAG executives when Dr Cobbina was perpetuating illegalities by appointing a 61 year old man, Mr. Augustus M. Koomson as acting rector of the polytechnic,� he alleged. The spokesperson revealed that Dr Cobbina had allegedly always done things that result in chaos and animosity in the polytechnic since he was appointed chairman, adding that Dr Cobbina�s only stock-in-trade was allegedly removing positive-thinking people from office only to replace them with people who will do his bidding. He bemoaned the situation where the chairman had allegedly been intimidating other political party members and therefore called on government to as a matter of urgency, dissolve the council to avoid any unforeseen action.