The Vice-Chancellor, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Prof. Oladipo Aina, has said that the institution has sacked six lecturers and rusticated 300 students for alleged sexual harassment and plagiarism, among others.
He spoke to our correspondent in Ado Ekiti, while stressing that his administration was committed to providing basic infrastructure in the school.
Aina said vices, comprising cultism, examination malpractice, rape and forgery, among others, that portrayed the university in bad light would soon end.
Aina, who said there were no fewer than 25,000 part-time students when he assumed leadership of the university in 2011, said the majority of them belonged to different cult groups.
He linked their exposure to cult groups to lack of a busy schedule.
Aina said, “There were no fewer than 25,000 students in the part-time school when I came into office. The first thing I did was to stop the admission to the programme. We had to re-screen the students to distinguish the real from the fake ones.
“Again, many of them dropped out on their own.
“Now, we have less than 10,000 of them and those remaining are the genuine students. You cannot hear that cultists are disturbing here any longer.”
On infrastructure, Aina said the university was collaborating with private operators to develop more hostels for students’ use on the Build, Operate and Transfer basis.
He added, “Apart from building hostels on campus on BOT, staff quarters would also be built through this avenue. The plan is to make the students to be more serious since they would be fully resident on campus.
“We have undertaken an ambitious infrastructure development programme to support teaching and learning.
“The new 1,500-seater lecture theatre funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and a modern medical library funded by the state government have just been inaugurated; while the Biochemistry and Pharmacology building and medical students’ hostels are nearing completion.
“Other buildings under construction include those of the Postgraduate Studies, Entrepreneurship Centre, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Faculty of Education.
“Laboratory and workshop equipment for the Faculty of Engineering and laboratory furniture and fittings for the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences are being supplied under TETFund Normal Project Intervention and BOT Special Intervention Funds.”
He also lauded the state governor, Kayode Fayemi, and the university’s alumni for providing financial assistance to the school.
