Legal Practitioner and Journalist Egbert Faibille Jnr has rubbished claims by Former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Stephen Adei that he owes him an amount of GHC 2000.
The said amount is according to Prof. Adei the remainder owed him by Lawyer Egbert Faibille which he is yet to settle over damages paid to him due to a legal suit he won against him in a series of defamation cases.
In a rejoinder signed by Lawyer Egbert Fabille, he described the claims made by Prof. Adei as ridiculous.
He challenged to file an Entry of Costs and have same served on him following which he can make such claims.
Find the full Rejoinder below:
January 12, 2017
The News Editor
STARR FM
Accra
Dear Sir/Madam,
REJOINDER: I DO NOT OWE DR. ADEI OF GIMPA FAME GH¢2,000
My attention has been drawn to some publications in the media sourced to STARR FM’s STARR CHAT programme of Wednesday, the 11th day of January, 2017 to the effect that Dr. Stephen Adei claims that I owe him the sum of Two Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 2,000).
Ridiculous as this claim is, I wish to set the records straight; further to which I furnish this rejoinder and demand that it be given same prominence in your broadcasts.
Sometime in 2006, I sued Dr. Stephen Adei, then Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), seeking reliefs inter alia that he is not entitled to use the title ‘Professor’ at GIMPA.
The background to the suit was that at all material times, Dr. Stephen Adei, when he was appointed Rector of GIMPA had the title Dr. Stephen Adei on GIMPA’s official records. In the course of time, a Christian institute in Zimbabwe known as AFRICA LEADERSHIP &MANAGEMENT ACADEMY (ALMA) wrote a letter to Dr. Stephen Adei appointing him an ‘Adjunct Professor’ at that institute for a one month period. On Dr. Adei’s return from teaching in that institute at Zimbabwe, he made strident and tactical efforts to sign all letters and documents emanating from his office at GIMPA as Professor Stephen Adei when GIMPA’s Academic Board and Council had not validated the so-called professorship he claims to have obtained at ALMA. Indeed the whole of Ghana referred to him as Professor Adei without checking the authenticity of his professorship.
GIMPA is founded by law and is a public institution. As a citizen, and alarmed by the situation, I commenced a suit at the High Court presided over by Ofoe J. (as he then was). It is instructive to note that I commenced the suit in September, 2006 and had the suit served on Dr. Adei on the 24th day of September, 2006. On service on Dr. Adei on that date, he quickly applied per letter that same day to the GIMPA Council to be appointed a Professor. The GIMPA Council after assessing his appointment duly appointed him Professor sometime in 2007 before judgment in the suit I had filed against him at the High Court.
The question to exercise any mind interested in this matter is as follows:
1. Why would a Dr. Stephen Adei who had been signing official GIMPA documents as Prof. Adei from 2003, apply formally to the GIMPA Council in September, 2006 to be appointed a Professor?
In its judgment in the suit I brought against Dr. Adei, the High Court presided over by Ofoe J dismissed it on ground that I lacked capacity to have brought the suit because I was not a student, worker or lecturer at GIMPA. The same High Court however in dismissing the suit also held that my case against Dr. Adei cannot be said to lack merit.
The title of the suit and its number at the High Court was EGBERT FAIBILLE JNR VS DR. STEPHEN ADEI & ORS (SUIT NO: AP 55/2007) and any person interested in the truth may apply for a copy of the judgment.
I filed an appeal against the judgment which appeal is still pending as I am of the considered view that a member of the public has a right to sue a public university in a situation where a staff of the public university covets an academic title and uses it in his dealings within and without that public university. The integrity of academic degrees by our public institutions ought to be protected by all citizens.
If Dr. Adei claims that I owe him Two Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 2,000) being costs awarded against me by the trial High Court. All he has to do is to file an Entry of Costs and have same served on me following which he can claim that I owe him. Until he goes through that procedure, he cannot say I owe him.
In conclusion, I pride myself in the fact I commenced a suit against Dr. Stephen Adei and held him accountable for his unauthorised use of the title Professor at GIMPA and his public imprimaturs when he was not entitled to that title. The proof lies in the fact that based on my suit, Dr. Adei applied to GIMPA in 2006 and was appointed Professor by GIMPA in 2007. Therefore, the deceit that was created from 2003 till 2006 that Dr. Stephen Adei was Professor Stephen Adei was therefore stopped and from 2007 GIMPA appointed a real Professor Stephen Adei.
My prayer is that no one at GIMPA or any of our public tertiary institutions will covet academic titles in the manner Dr. Adei did at GIMPA again.
Yours faithfully,
EGBERT FAIBILLE JNR
cc:
The Producer
STARR CHAT
Starr FM
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