THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Akure zone, and the management of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) are, again, at each other’s throats following another round of accusation by the union that the university’s vice chancellor, Professor Kayode Soremekun, is involved in alleged “impunity and flagrant disregard for rules and regulations guiding university system.”
In a statement, the zonal coordinator of the union, Professor Olu Olufayo, alleged that Professor Soremekun was “secretly and illegally recruiting” workers and also promoting some others in a manner that negates the rules.
He said the vice chancellor had also embarked on “staff promotion exercise at a time when all universities in the country were shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” claiming that “this was done in order for him to promote his cronies before his exit as the vice chancellor.”
Olufayo also alleged that Soremekun had committed financial misappropriation, and called on the pro-chancellor and chairman of the newly-constituted governing council of FUOYE to set up a visitation panel to the institution to investigate the vice chancellor.
The deputy director, corporate services of FUOYE, Mr. Adeyinka Ademuyiwa, who reacted on behalf the university’s management, said the allegations were now “routine and well-known of FUOYE ASUU faction led by a suspended staff, Mr. Gabriel Omonijo, and his co-travellers in mudslinging business in the media and the courts,” saying “they beg in the day and attack at night.”
On the alleged illegal recruitment of staff, FUOYE said recruitment procedures in federal universities as well as regulations of the Federal Character Commission were duly followed, adding that waivers are legally granted vice chancellors to appoint people in some situations and regularise within a time frame.
He said, “Incidentally, the only grouse of these people is the thinking that the FUOYE management placed advert recently between the last governing council whose tenure expired in February 2020 and the new one which was inaugurated in July, 2020.
“To them, that means the adverts were done without council’s approval, not knowing that the governing council whose tenure expired in February had foreseen the possibility of a lacuna and had, therefore, directed management to place an advert in that regard.
“Once council has given such a directive, all other administrative processes itemised earlier can go ahead, which is what FUOYE management has done.”
On the allegation of financial misappropriation, FUOYE said the matter is already a subject of scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly and “we have responded to all their enquiries. They are lacking in patience and are not seeking fairness or justice but distractions and confusion.”
Ademuyiwa added: “Secondly, universities across the country are monitored and controlled through defined processes. In FUOYE’s case and with respect to 2016/2017 session in particular, both the Auditor General of the Federation and the Public Accounts Committee of the Federation are doing their jobs in this regard.”
He accused the union of meddlesomeness and malice, adding: “these allegations are not the first and may not be the last. We are only happy that each time they come, without foundations, like a smoke, they fizzle away.”
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