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The Concerned Sons and Daughters of Ikoga-Zebbe in Badagry, Lagos State has made a passionate appeal to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to direct the reinstatement of five sacked lecturers of the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo.
The community on May 18th, 2024, held a peaceful rally and issued a statement, appealing to Governor Sanwo-Olu to recall the wrongly dismissed executives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU-LASU branch.
“We appealed that Mr. Governor should graciously lift the embargo his government placed on the implementation of the decision of LASU Governing Council on February 23rd, 2022 to the effect that Dr. Dansu and other four ASUU-LASU officials were wrongfully and illegally dismissed from the services of the university.
The group in another letter dated July 24th and signed by three Ikoga-Zebbe indigenes in UK and USA as well as three others in Nigeria urged the governor to revisit the decisions of LASU governing council in 2022 and order their reinstatement without further delay.
The community recalled that there son; Dansu and other four ASUU-LASU officials were wrongfully dismissed from the services of the university in 2017 and 2019.
They appealed to Sanwo-Olu to reinstate them unconditionally; pay their accrued financial entitlements and benefits; and including their promotions without loss of seniority and entitlements.
“As a follow up to the peaceful rally, the group made up of indigenous Lagosians, consolidated these efforts by consultations, lobbying and reaching out to many stakeholders to prevail on the government to do what is just, needful, and overdue in respect of these cases.
“In addition, we have written letters to offices and individuals in their official capacities; the governor, the deputy governor, Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA); member of the House of Representative, Badagry Constituency; Commissioner for Tertiary Education; Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Human Right, Public Petition and LASIEC; members of LAHA representing Badagry Constituency I and II.” The community said sadly it has not gotten any positive results, “hence, we have to cry for justice to the public through the press once again on this same issue.”
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The group explained that facts available to them revealed that between September 2017 and September 2019, five exco members of ASUU-LASU were dismissed by the previous governing council of LASU on the basis of frivolous charges brought against them by the administration of Prof. Lanre Fagbohun.
The community revealed that in 2021, the current university management under the Vice Chancellorship of Prof Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello asked for an out-of -court settlement of the cases.
It added: ‘This was followed by the reversal of the five dismissals, and reinstatement of the ASUU-LASU officers by the new university Governing Council under the chairmanship of Sir David Sunmoni on the 23rd of February, 2022.
“The reversal and the reinstatement came as a result of two committees’ reports that vindicated the union leaders. But less than 24 hours after the council resolution, Lagos State Government forced the university governing council to put the implementation of its decision on the union leaders on hold.
“This was on the premise that council should wait for the release of the government’s white paper on the 2021 LASU visitation panel. Since February 2022, running to three years, nothing has been heard from the government on this matter.”
The community said immediate past VC under whose administration the union leaders were sacked and the issue of his administration dominated the visitation panel’s white paper has been employed back to the university without recourse to the release of the white paper.
Similarly, it noted that some other past and present principal officers and senior academic and non-academic staffers of LASU, whose issues were treated by the visitation panel have been reabsorbed and reappointed back to the university without recourse to the visitation panel report or government’s white paper.
“We wish to appeal to Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Executive Governor of Lagos State, and the Visitor to LASU to cause the reinstatement of Dr. Tony Dansu and other four officers of ASUU-LASU, by lifting the embargo he placed on the implementation of the decision of LASU governing council on the five union officers on the 23rd of February, 2022,” the community stressed.
