The Federal Government has stepped into the quarrel between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Prof Hilary Edeoga, Vice-Chancellor, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture at Umudike (MOUAU) n Abia State. The parties are sticking to their guns, despite the probe, report UGOCHUKWU UGORJI-EKE (Umuahia) and CLARICE AZUATALAM (Port Harcourt).
The Federal Government has launched a probe into the allegations of fraud, high-handedness and mismanagement levelled against Prof Hilary Edeoga, Vice-Chancellor (VC), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) in Abia State by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
President Muhammadu Buhari, speaking through the Minister of State for Education, Prof Anthony Onwuka during the university’s seventh convocation last Saturday, said he was aware of the rift between Edeoga and the union, adding that all the issues.
“Government is aware of the misunderstanding between the university management and ASUU, which is the reason the ministerial committee has been set up to investigate the matter and submit its report within 10 days,” he said.
There is no love lost between Edeoga and the MOUAU branch of ASUU, chaired by Dr Uzochukwu Onyebinama. In June, the university suspended Onyebinama for alleged fraud and examination malpractices following investigation by a staff disciplinary committee.
Back then, Edeoga said the panel found Onyebinama “guilty of insubordination, total disregard for constituted authority, inefficiency, negligence and dishonesty in the discharge of his official functions.” The panel and recommended his dismissal, but the university management converted it to suspension.
Onyebinama has taken the university the court over the matter.
ASUU also kicked against the suspension and threatened to down tools if he was not re-instated. It was learnt that he has not been re-instated.
In the past few weeks, ASUU has held press conferences across the country, calling on the government to check Edeoga’s alleged excesses, which its leaders claimed was plunging the institution into crisis.
At the ASUU Sokoto Zone press conference, the Zonal Coordinator, Dr Lawali Alkali Argungu, accused Edeoga of sundry misdeeds.
He said: “For the 2014/2015 admission exercise, the VC instructed that all new students must buy a bed space at the rate of N60,800 which he deliberately refused to refund those who could not get the accommodation.
“The Vice-Chancellor, in flagrant violation of the university laws compelled prospective applicants seeking job to pay a non refundable application fee of N3,800, a practice alien to the University system.”
The union also accused Edeoga of approving some programmes, such as Human Resources Management, allegedly not accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC). He was also said to have approved the promotion of 30 lecturers to professorial cadre who were not adequately qualified.
But, a group of academics who claimed to have pulled out of MOUAU ASUU, has condemned the union’s national leadership for allegedly denigrating the VC.
In a statement signed by its leader, Dr Joseph Adama, and distributed in Port Harcout, claimed that the allegation that the university was running unapproved programmes was untrue.
It flayed the ASUU leadership for failing to authenticate its claims before falsely accusing Edeoga.
The statement reads: “What ASUU national body should have done was to have investigated the facts of the matter before going to the press.
“There is a gang up initiated by ASUU, using the zones to fight MOUAU, the vice chancellor, the governing council, the senate, distinguished professors, academic and non-academic staff and the students in general.”
Adama noted that the MOUAU branch of ASUU was “very vibrant…until a one-time branch chairman was indicted by the university’s Investigation Committee and Disciplinary Committee at different times.”
The group endorsed the indictment and urged ASUU to stand by the truth.
Edeoga is relieved that the Federal Government has stepped in to resolve the crisis.
The panel, he said, would ensure that the truth is known and also afford him opportunity of defending himself.
Edeoga refused to respond to the allegations against him, claiming that he had been warned by the governing council to stop speaking about the ASUU matter.
“The council has started looking into the matter and will come out with its findings very soon. It is like a matter being placed before a court, so I am not going to speak until the case is dispensed of,” he said.
The Pro-Chancellor and chairman of council, Prof Anya Oko Anya, who ASUU accused of supporting Edeoga said the case was being investigated.
“The council has received their petition and we are looking into the matter and when we are through we will make our findings public,” he said.
On the accommodation fee controversy, the Student Union Government (SUG) president, Comrade Benedict Obiajulu, said the problem arose because of a break in communication between the bank and the hostel’s allocation committee
“When the students involved approached me, I went to the school management and found out that it was not a deliberate action,” he said.
Obiajulu said the cost of bed space in the new hostels, which have constant light and water, is N60,000. The old hostels, he added, are cheaper.
He said the students who paid the N60,800 but were allocated spaces in the old hostels, would have the excess carried over to the next session.
He said off-campus, the most expensive hostel, Siege hostel, goes for N120,000, adding that it does not provide regular power supply and water.
A student, who does not want to be named, said he got a refund when he was not allocated space in the new hostel.
“When I could not get a bed space at the hostel, my money was returned to me complete. However I cannot speak for others; though most of them told me they got their money back,” he said.
A member of the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU), Ikechukwu Okwor, said as a pioneer staff of the institution, allegation of over-staffing of the school with non-indigenes always comes up whenever a new VC comes on board.
He explained that investigation has shown that Abia State has the highest number of workers employed as the catchment area of the university.
Edeoga, he said, is innocent.
“The VC is being attacked by the cabal who has for years been holding the school to ransom, and after the end of their tenure they want to remain on seat which Prof Edeoga has refused to do,” he said.
However, some parents do not agree with Okwor.
The parents, in a statement signed by their Chairman, Obinna Nwosu, and Secretary, Tony Okoro, claimed that their petition to the governing council over the excesses and recklessness of the management has been ignored.
“When we openly demonstrated against the academic and financial fraud in the university, the management arrested some of us and tortured us in their secret chambers until the police rescued us, some of the scandalous activities we complained against have been thriving since then,” they alleged.