THE Akure Zonal wing of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has opposed Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari over alleged attempts to appoint Professor Abayomi Sunday Fasina as the Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the Federal University of Oye Ekiti (FUOYE).
This is contained in a statement jointly signed by Olu Olu Olufayo, the ASUU Akure Zonal Coordinator; Olayinka Awopetu, ASUU FUTA Chairperson; Adeola Egbedokun, ASUU OAU Chairperson; Kayode Arogundade, Chairperson, ASUU EKSU and Akinyemi Omonijo, ASUU FUOYE Chairperson on Thursday.
According to ASUU, Fasina, who is currently the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (administration) of FUOYE has been running the university as a private enterprise alongside the soon to be retired VC, Kayode Soremekun.
“Under the watch of Professors Soremekun and Fasina, FUOYE has become an enslaved and conquered territory where academic freedom has long been mortgaged to nepotism, parochialism and patronage.
“Soremekun and Fasina have continued to run a private enterprise and surprisingly, as the tenure of the tyrant Vice-Chancellor is coming to an end, we learnt that there are clandestine plans to enthrone Prof. Fasina as an anointed successor in a bid to enshrine a dynasty of impunity,” the statement read.
ASUU said Fasina should have been arrested by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged acts of corruption.
“The Man, Fasina, by all available information of his arrant misdemeanour should have been arrested and prosecuted over one year ago. We had earlier petitioned two anti-graft agencies (EFCC and ICPC) on the goings-on at FUOYE since 2019 and till now, we have not heard anything,” said ASUU.
Further opposing his alleged positioning as the next VC, ASUU said Fasina had been involved in misconducts at his former place of employment, Ekiti State University.
“Fasina is a basket of corruption and errors! A pathological liar of sinister personality and a bundle of destruction. He stands as a security risk and this can be verified by his antecedents at Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti where he is still a staff till date.
“He absconded from EKSU, lied to FUOYE to cunningly secure an appointment and received full salaries in both places for six (6) months. We wonder why such a personality managed to be shortlisted from the long list of applicants to the next round.
“As it stands, there is a public petition against him from Hon. ‘Bayo Idowu & Co. (Barrister- At- Law), on fraudulent practices and requesting for thorough Investigation and Disciplinary Action,” ASUU further stated.
The Zonal ASUU branch also alleged that there is no record of Fasina’s disengagement from EKSU before he was appointed as a full-time staff in FUOYE.
“We also wonder why he was offered a full-time appointment in FUOYE as a Professor despite failing to meet up with the FUOYE criteria for appointment as Professor as enshrined in the Conditions of Service.
“He was advised to re-prepare his Curriculum Vitae for re-assessment but nothing was heard of the process again until he was surreptitiously appointed by Soremekun as Professor without due process. He parades at least 3 different letters of appointment from FOUYE in a clumsy effort to conceal his nefarious appointments in FUOYE,” claimed ASUU.
ASUU said several calls in the past over misconducts in the university had been ignored from anti-graft agencies, Federal Ministry of Education as well as National Universities Commission.
Rather than appoint, ASUU called on the authorities to arrest and prosecute Fasina and Soremekun over the alleged offences.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94