‘ASUU will shun UNIPORT VC when tenure expires’

From Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) has threatened to shun Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. Stephen Okodudu if he remained in office beyond his stipulated term of six months as provided by the Universities Act 2003.

The union said its decision followed the Federal Government’s refusal to constitute a Governing Council in the institution.

Chairman Dr Austen Sado said yesterday: “The government is engineering a crisis in the University of Port Harcourt if it fails to constitute a Governing Council immediately. We can do without the impending crisis of legitimacy being orchestrated by the government.

“ASUU will no longer cooperate with an acting Vice Chancellor beyond January 13, 2021. From the provisions of the Act stated above, the Governing Council is pivotal to the appointment of a Vice Chancellor in our university. Sadly, the government dissolved the Governing Council on May 2020 and, in violation of the Universities (miscellaneous provision) Law, refused to constitute another Council…”

“The Accountant-General of the Federation and their collaborators have also complicated the situation by withholding our members’ salaries to blackmail us into enrolling on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) even after our union submitted the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to it. For the avoidance of doubt, our members who have been subjected to up to eight months of hunger by the AGF are not even contemplating enrolment on IPPIS.”