Some lecturers of the Lagos State University (LASU) have expressed divergent views on the dismissal of its 15 academic staff, including the chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and his deputy.
The LASU lecturers made their views known in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.
NAN reports that LASU Governing Council had on Sept. 8 dismissed 15 academic staff along with two non-academic staff and demoted two others.
Among those dismissed for various acts of misconduct were ASUU-LASU Chairman, Dr Isaac Oyewunmi, and his Deputy, Dr Adebowale Adeyemi-Suenu.
The university found Oyewunmi guilty of demanding N50,000 from 2003 modular year students of Political Science Education on the sandwich programme to process their results.
Adeyemi-Suenu was said to have unilaterally altered the results of 12 students already advised to withdraw by the university senate in the 2015/2016 academic session.
Others were said to have defaulted on conditions of their training leave bond and also abandoned their duty.
Dr Patrick Adegbuyi of the Mechanical Engineering Department said Oyewunmi and Adeyemi-Suenu had lost legitimacy as ASUU-LASU executive following their dismissal by the university and called for the immediate dissolution of the branch executive.
“The present ASUU-LASU executive should be dissolved and a caretaker committee put in place to run the affairs of the union pending election of the substantive officers.
“What the dismissed ASUU-LASU leaders should now do is to seek redress with the governing council or the law court rather than turn the matter to a turmoil,” he said.
Dr Dele Seteolu, lecturer in Department of Political Science, however, said the call for dissolution of the ASUU-LASU executive was illegal, unfair and baseless.
Seteolu said the minority opinion of some members of the congress did not represent the position of the congress and the prevalent mood on campus.
He said that the dismissal of the union leaders was politically motivated and a desperate attempt by some lecturers to hijack and control the union leadership.
Also, Dr Olusola Sokefun, lecturer, Department of Zoology and Environmental Biology, told NAN that dissolution of the executive was not an option.
Sokefun said that the dismissed union leaders remained recognised by the ASUU national leadership until proven guilty by a law court.
He said ASUU was not against punishing erring members as long as the process leading to the punishment or purported dismissal was clean, clear and devoid of sentiments.
“In this case, we are convinced that the prove of guilt is not clean and properly done,” he said.
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