The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) has led some of its members to stage a protest against what it described as “excesses” of the Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun in Lagos.
The rally which started at the early hours of the day, spread through the State Government Alausa, Ikeja to the premises of the Lagos State House of Assembly, halting activities for several hours as the protesting lecturers insisted on seeing Governor Akinwunmi Ambode who is the visitor to the institution.
The aggrieved lecturers were armed with various placards and banners that read: “Ambode, we need your intervention to stop Prof. Fagbohun’s dictatorship”, “LASU is a university, not a barrack”, “Mr Governor, it is time to set up a visitation panel that will investigate the rots in LASU”, among others.
The ASUU Zonal Chairman, Prof. Olusiji Sowande said the protest rally has become necessitated because of what he called the “victimization of our comrades in LASU chapter, in the last two years”. He alleged that the Vice Chancellor’s intention is to cripple the union out of existence in the University.
“The issue started with the dismissal of two of our colleagues, Dr. Akinloye Oyewunmi and Dr. Adebowale Adeyemi-Suenu who were both the LASU-ASUU chapter’s Chairman and Vice Chairman, on alleged trumped-up charges. Thereafter, other members of the executive were also being intimidated and victimized one way or the other.
“The peak of it was the queries issued to the Union chapter’s Secretary, Dr Tony Dansu, the Assistant General Secretary, Dr Adeolu Oyekan and the Treasurer, Dr Kemi Aboderin, all of which have been holding forth after the dismissal of the Chairman and Vice Chairman.
“The latest query issue stemmed from the petition forwarded by both the Secretary and his Assistant on the need to investigate the former Registrar of the University who back-dated the promotion to the Professorship of Prof. Fagbohun. The treasurer was involved because she also wrote to ask for the back-dating of her promotion which she has long been denied of,” Prof. Sowande said.
The ASUU Zonal Coordinator said rather than setting investigative panel to unravel what was outlined in the petition, the school management went on to query the trio, how they got the documents they attached to their petitions and also asked them to face disciplinary panel. He said with the situation on ground, the three Union members have also been marked for dismissal.
The Special Adviser to Governor Ambode on Civic Engagement, Mr.Benjamin Olabinjo and the legislator representing Ojo 1 at the House of the Assembly, Victor Akande, who represented the Speaker, Tajudeen Obasa, collected the petition with a promise to invite the leadership of ASUU for a meeting with the Governor at a later day.
