I remain ASUU chairman in LASU ― Oyewunmi

The management of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, on Monday suspended, with immediate effect, further remittance of check-off dues of lecturers of the university into the union bank accounts.

The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Olarenwaju Fagbohun, said this in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday.

He said the university took the decision to ensure the university branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) properly regularised the signatory to its bank accounts.

The VC, who is a Professor of Law, explained that it was not only improper that the dismissed ASUU branch chairman of the university, Dr Isaac Oyewunmi, is still a signatory to the bank account of the union more than a year after his dismissal from the services of the university over alleged misconduct bordering on money extortion from students and also still collecting N50, 000 monthly allowance, but also illegal and fraudulent.

He noted that it was some members of ASUU in the university who petitioned the university over the continuous operation of the union account by their former leader and that upon investigations confirmed the authenticity of the claim from the bank.

According to him, the relevant financial institutions confirmed to the management that Dr Oyewunmi is a truly a signatory to the bank accounts of ASUU-LASU up to January 9, 2019.

“So, it is necessary to suspend further remittance of lecturers’ check off dues into those accounts until proper regularisation are done in order not to allow the mechanisms of the university to be used by anybody to aid and abet fraud and corruption in our system,” Fagbohun said.

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But when contacted for his reaction, Dr Oyewunmi told Tribune Online that, though, he would not want to join issue with the university management over the matter that concerning his person because his case with the university authority for dismissing him is pending before the court of competent jurisdiction.

Joining issue with the university management, he explained, would be sub-judicial and unnecessary.

“But then, it a statement of fact that I remain the branch chairman of ASUU of LASU and therefore not out of place that I am retained as the signatory to the union account,” he said.

On the issue that he is also still drawing N50, 000 monthly allowance from the union account which is due for the officer occupying the chairman seat, he said the money is his entitlement as the chairman of the branch.

It will be recalled that the secretary and assistant secretary of the branch have been the ones performing the roles of chairman and his deputy in acting capacity particularly within the university community since they were both dismissed over similar allegations in 2017.