Matilda Omonaiye/
The University of Lagos Community held a triumphal procession for Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe today on his return from Abuja where the governing council, after a controversial voting exercise at the National Universities Commission premises, had announced his removal as Vice-Chancellor.
The Registrar and Secretary to Council, Mr Oladejo Azeez, says in a statement issued yesterday: “This decision was based on Council’s investigation of serious acts of wrongdoing, gross misconduct, financial recklessness and abuse of office against Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe.”
But the majority of the academic community saw the removal as a vindictive exercise that had nothing to do with corruption and did not go through due process.
Meanwhile, Prof. Ogundipe has engaged a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Mike Ozekhome to challenge the action of the governing council led by Dr Wale Babalakin in Court.
Ogundipe’s letter of instruction to Ozekhome, dated August 12, 2020, stated that the act of the Governing Council of the university “purportedly removing” him from office was “illegal and unconstitutional”. He added that it was “carried out without due process and contrary to the University Act and other extant laws governing discipline, suspension and removal of the Vice-Chancellor of the University”.
His instruction to Ozekhome written on his official letterhead was titled, ‘Instruction to institute legal action against the Council and Pro-Chancellor and others of the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos’.
It reads in part: “I hereby formally brief you to institute legal proceedings against the Council, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos and others based on their illegal and unconstitutional act of purportedly removing me from office as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos.
“I honestly believe that this action was carried out without due process and contrary to the University Act and other extant laws governing discipline, suspension and removal of the Vice-Chancellor of the University.
“I humbly urge you to use your legal experience to redress this grave injustice meted out to me.”
In another development, members of unions at UNILAG, from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), have asked the Federal Government to rescind the sack as they held a protest march today.
The unions presented their joint position after a Congress held on Thursday on the University campus.
In a joint communique produced after the meeting, the Unions said “the council violently and most lawlessly violated the law in the said removal of the Vice-Chancellor.”
They added that no notice had been served to Prof. Ogundipe on the allegation against him, no fact-finding mission was set up and no formal report was produced to substantiate the sack.
They concluded that the Professor hadn’t been afforded a fair hearing.
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