The conflict between members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) and Vice Chancellor Femi Mimiko appears to be deepening as six members of the union were today suspended by the university administration.
The six members, including ASUU branch chairman, Busuyi Mekusi, were suspended after the registrar of the university, R.O. Olotu, issued a query to six ASUU officials and members. The query pertained to an ongoing dispute between ASUU members and the university’s security outfit.
Earlier, the university had demanded that Mr. Mekusi and other ASUU members respond within 24 hours to various allegations regarding a reported assault on lecturers. In the query by the registrar, the ASUU branch chairman was accused of assaulting the university security men, disruption of the university’s academics, and the subsequent media publication of the alleged attack on ASUU members. The registrar said Mr. Mekusi should explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against him by the university administration.
A source told SaharaReporters that the suspended ASUU executives are due to face an investigation panel over their assertion that ASUU national officers were recently assaulted by members of the university’s security outfit during a zonal meeting on the university campus.
Two sources told SaharaReporters over the telephone that the suspended ASUU members have also been barred from entering the university premises. “The university authorities have told gatemen that the affected lecturers should be disallowed from entering into the school,” one source said.
Just last week, at a press conference in Akure, ASUU national President, Nasir Isa Fagge, criticized Mr. Mimiko’s tyrannical rule in the institution. Mr. Fagge also condemned the attack on ASUU members in the institution and called for an investigation of the matter.
“It is unimaginable that a Vice Chancellor of a state-owned university in a Labor Party-controlled state would unashamedly canvass for the castration of Labor activists,” said the ASUU leader, accusing Mr. Mimiko of “deliberate mischief.”
A lawyer and counsel to the ASUU members, Charles Titiloye, had complained of the refusal of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) at Akungba Police Station to investigate the reported attack on the lecturers. Mr. Titiloye had also written a petition to the Ondo State Police Commissioner, Patrick Dokumor, on the failure of the police to investigate the attack on his clients.
Mr. Titiloye said the police commissioner ought to have assigned some officers to investigate the disruption of ASUU’s meeting at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko. He condemned the assault on lecturers of the institution by the university security men who claimed to be acting on the instructions of Vice Chancellor Femi Mimiko, who is a younger brother of the state governor.
