The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ilorin Branch, has dissociated itself from the so-called petition signed by an imposter claiming to represent the Branch, alleging that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali and his immediate predecessor and now JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, were involved in a N 2.5 billion fraud.
In a press statement issued by Unilorin ASUU and signed by its Chairman, Dr. Usman Adebimpe Raheem, a copy of which was made available to Unilorin Bulletin, the Union pointed out that the petition was “baseless”, describing it as “just one other antics from the cartons of mischief of pseudo-Unionists that are bereft of positive contribution to national development and only camouflaging as champions of the masses while they embark on self-seeking programmes.”
The statement added that the allegations were part of calculated strategies intended to malign the selected personalities and undermine the credibility of the University of Ilorin.
Dr Raheem stated, “For emphasis, the signatories to the petition, which speak volume of its content and context, do not represent the opinion of the ASUU, University of Ilorin”, adding that “the character, Dr. Kayode Afolayan, signed the petition in his ignorable and ignoble personality and not in the enviable name of Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Ilorin Branch.”
Pointing out that Unilorin ASUU is “not surprised by the latest fiction packaged as a petition by ASUU-Ibadan Zone to the EFCC”, Dr. Raheem said, “It is just one in the series of strategies to malign the selected personalities and undermine the credibility of the University of Ilorin.”
The ASUU Chairman said: “The petition was said to have been signed by characters like Dr Omole, who has been unable to reconcile his character with the enormity of welfare issues at his Branch in Ibadan, a certain Biodun Olaniran, the Chairperson of the ill-fated LAUTECH Branch of ASUU, whose institution has been plagued in crisis for a long time without a solution from the likes of Olaniran and an Afolayan who has no base or any iota of support from the academic staff at the University of Ilorin.”
Dr. Raheem declared that “the Branch of the Union in the University is most competent to make such allegations as contained in the said petition if indeed they exist,” saying, “ASUU University of Ilorin Branch dissociates itself from the purported petition and urges the relevant agencies to continue to toe the path of truth in the course of their investigations; after all, the merit of a petition is a functional representation of the character and quality of the petitioner, more often than not”.
He said, “ASUU Unilorin does not need the help of charlatans that signed the petition to champion our course which is the welfare and progress of our members and our University”.
The Unilorin ASUU Chairman further maintained that “as a body of responsible academics, if there is fraud in our University, we are in a prime place to know and we are properly positioned to fight such in the most civilised and result-oriented manner and not in a manner that will cry foul where there is none as the present petitioners embarked upon”.
He described the “petition as read in the dailies, as bereft of any empirical and verifiable facts expected of a body of academics that the writers pretend to be.”
