The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to check the excesses of the Vice Chancellor of the Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, Prof Hillary Edeoga, for introducing obnoxious levies among practices regarded as unacceptable.
At a press conference, Coordinator of the Sokoto Zone of the union, Dr Lawali Alkali Argungu, in solidarity with the university’s ASUU branch?, lamented that the vice chancellor was disregarding the law in running the institution.
He said: “MOUA today, represents a public institution where impunity, recklessness and lawlessness are the order of the day.
“This is because the current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Hillary Edeoga? appears more interested in pulling down the university to satisfy his personal interest as clearly indicated by the manner he is managing the affairs of the institution.
“For the 2014/2015 admission exercise, the VC instructed that all new students in the university 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 jobs with the university to pay a non refundable application fees of N3,800, a practice that is alien to the university system.”
Argungu further alleged that the Vice-Chancellor had “approved and supported” some programmes that are not approved by the NUC, despite several warning by stakeholders.
He claimed that the vice chancellor’s wife trained in one of the programmes, Human Resources Management, up to M. Sc level.
Argungu also alleged that Edeoga “unilaterally approved” the appointment of Assistant Lecturers and Lecturer 1 as Directors in violation of the university regulations and that 30 of the 34 professors he appointed are not suitably qualified.
“It is of course worth noting that all these atrocities are facilitated by the complicit behaviour of the university governing council, headed by Prof. Anya O. Anya, who could not control the reckless violation of the laws of the University.
“This has necessitated the need for the visitor of the university, the President of Nigeria, to urgently intervene in order to forestall further destruction of the academic and moral culture of the University.
“The President can do this by way of sending an investigative panel to the University with the view of taking appropriate action thereafter,” the Zonal Coordinator urged.