Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
The Federal Ministry of Education has intervened in the crisis rocking the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has involved the management of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE).
Deputy Vice Chancellor of the university, Oladapo Fasina, who made the disclosure, yesterday, at Oye Ekiti, added that the supervising ministry, after receiving the petition from ASUU local chapter and a response from the Vice Chancellor, Kayode Soremekun, decided to intervene to nip the crisis in the bud.
Oladapo declined further comments regarding the decision of the ministry because of the sensitive nature of the matter.
A faction of the local ASUU at FUOYE had, in a petition to the Federal Ministry of Education, called for a visitation panel to probe some of the allegations contained in its petition against Soremekun.
Part of the allegations against the vice chancellor include failure to provide infrastructure in the institution, illegal recruitment, and misappropriation of funds, all of which were said to have been denied in his reply to the minister.
In his reply, the vice chancellor was said to have told the minister that the petitioners failed to consult the ASUU Congress before sending the petition through the national body, and alleged a deliberate attempt to mislead the minister about happenings at the university.
The vice chancellor pointed out that, “if the national president of ASUU had taken time to make consultations, he would have been able to get the facts about the real situation, rather than relying on the lies furnished him by the chairman of the local chapter of ASUU.
“Contrary to allegations of inadequate infrastructure at the institution, the current management has embarked on the construction of over 30 projects, some of which had been completed, which led to the accreditation of all courses in the university, preparatory to the current academic session.
“As a result of some of the feats and innovations at FUOYE, it ranked the best among those that were established at the same time and 14th among all the universities in Nigeria, in the last ranking exercise carried out by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
“Currently, the university has got approval for the commencement of law programme from the NUC, and only awaiting the nod of the law regulatory body while that of medicine is underway.
“FUOYE remains the only university among six others that were established in 2011, that is running two campuses, one at Oye, and the other one at Ikole; and the management has ensured necessary infrastructure for the convenience of the students are being put in place.”
The chairman of the local chapter of ASUU, Dr Akinyemi Omonijo, is equally not on the good side of some of his executive members and the entire congress, as he was accused of running the union like a personal property.