Kehinde Adewole, Ado Ekiti
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Ekiti State Univeristy, Ado-Ekiti (EKSU), has insisted that the removal of the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Samuel Oye Bandele, by Governor Kayode Fayemi, did not follow due process.
EKSU ASUU chairman, Prof. Olufayo Olu-Olu said in a statement, in Ado-Ekiti, on Sunday, that “the Vice Chancellor of EKSU was arbitrarily removed. The removal is hereby condemned in strong terms and in its entirety”.
He said that ASUU-EKSU Congress had at its meeting on Thursday, January 24 resolved that “in order to prevent unn ecessary crisis and administrative problems, due process should be followed in governing of the university”.
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Fayemi had, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Yinka Oyebode, last Tuesday removed EKSU VC alongside the Chief Medical Director of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Kolawole Ogundipe and Provost of College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Prof. Mojisola Oyarekua and announced their replacement in acting capacity.
The governor’s action followed report of the visitation panels to the institutions and approval by the State Executive Council of the White Paper on the report.
But ASUU, which said the governor lacked the powers to remove the VC, clarified that “it is the university Governing Council that has the power to remove the VC after following due process”.
It said, “The university is an autonomus institution with extant rules and governing regulations and that the appointment and removal of a VC has procedures under the laws of the university. EKSU is not and cannot be an extension of the Ministry of Education”.