Stop oppressing lecturers, ASUU tells LASU VC

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has warned the Vice-Chancellor, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Prof. Oladapo Obafunwa to stop oppressing members of ASUU in the university. Coordinator, ASUU, Port Harcourt Zone, Prof. Beke Sese, said on Thursday that Obafunwa was engaging in “primitive witch-hunt” of the university teachers. Sese, who addressed journalists at the Faculty of Law, Niger Delta University, Yenagoa Campus, accused the Vice Chancellor of masterminding the interdiction of Prof. Tunde Fatunde.
   He also accused the VC of the purported withdrawal of the PhD certificates of 19 ASUU members, including that of the chairman, Adekunle Idris. The press conference had in attendance Anthonia Okerenguo (Chairman, ASUU Uniport); Ganiyu Adekola (Secretary, ASUU Uniport), Stanley Ogoun (Chairman, ASUU, NDU); Tonbra Kingdom (Secretary, ASUU, NDU); Ebi Baraka (Assistant Secretary, ASUU, NDU); Joyce Oyadongha (Welfare Officer, ASUU, NDU) and Francis Poazi (Treasurer ASUU, NDU).
   He said Fatunde’s ‘sin’ was that “he condemned the exorbitant hike in LASU fees” in an open letter he wrote to the Visitor to the university and Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola. Sese said the claim by Obafunwa that the institution had awarded the affected lecturers’ doctoral certificates “in error” and that the certificate of Idris was “wrongly written”, was spurious. He added, “The university did not say it was wrongly awarded or illegally acquired, but that it was ‘wrongly written’. “And it is instructive to note that it was the university that wrote the certificates and not the awardees. “Our union, therefore, condemns in unequivocal terms such brazen display of high-handedness and vindictiveness by the Prof. John Oladapo Obafunwa-led LASU administration.”
   The zonal coordinator urged Fashola to intervene and caution the VC before he plunges the university into further needless crisis. He also appealed to the school’s Governing Council to appropriately implement the University Miscellaneous Act and stop the excesses of Obafunwa in a bid to restore order. “The current foot-dragging must stop. Our union has resolved to throw our weight behind our branch at LASU in its call for a visitation to the university to unravel and address the causes of the incessant crises in the university,” he stated.