Uniuyo VC: Contender takes Governing Council to court

One of the contenders for position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof. Effiong Johnson, has taken the institution’s Governing Council to the Federal High Court, challenging his disqualification from the race.
 The Governing Council has aleady announced Professor Enefiok Essien, of the department of law as new Vice Chancellor of the university.
He is to succeed Prof. Comfort Ekpo, whose tenure expires in December.
Speaking yesterday, Johnson, who is a former Dean of Students Affairs, expressed dissatisfaction with the process that produced the new Vice-Chancellor, wondering why his name was withdrawn from the list of those shortlisted for the final interview for the office of the vice chancellor.
 He said he was yet to receive explanation as to why his name was “surreptitiously omitted from the list having satisfied all necessary requirements for the office of vice-chancellor’”.
 He said “the advert declaring vacant the position of the vice chancellor of the University of Uyo came out in The Punch newspaper of April 28, 2015, and criteria for the candidate was clearly stated. This is my third term in the Governing Council. With that credential, I am not a novice.
“I also met Item B which among others stated that the person for the position of vice chancellor as advertised should have had 20 years of experience in the university setting, ten of which as a professor.  I heard rumour that the Governing Council may have had another interpretation of that particular criterion. I completed ten years as a professor on October 1, 2015, and the interview for that job was billed for October 15, 2015”.
He added: “So I had to institute a case challenging the process in the Federal High Court.”
He alleged further that before the interview was conducted, the university was served with an injunction restraining the Governing Council from conducting the interview.
He said in spite of the injunction, the university went ahead to conduct the interview without inviting him, adding, “the fact that I was not invited for the interview is evidence that something is wrong and the court has to unravel it’’.