AAU cautions staff, students against victimisation, cultism

Authorities of Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma Edo State, have cautioned staff of the school against victimisation of students, just as students have been advised to shun cultism and other vices. Failure to the comply, the school insists, would be visited with appropriate sanctions, in accordance with the law.

Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Ignatius Onimawo, stated this at briefing to announce the 20th convocation of the institution, which would cover two sessions of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 sessions.

He said 8, 340 of the graduands would be leaving with their first degrees, 354 with diploma certificates and 492 would depart with the postgraduate degrees.

Onimawo, who said there has been a reduction in cult-related activities in the school, informed that management was exploring avenues to accelerate development in the school.

“We are aware that such things (cultism) exist and so when I came on board, I met with different groups, academic staff, non teaching staff, senior staff and I told them where we are going, that in this administration we are not going to tolerate any form of malpractice whether on the part of students or staff and that is why since we came on board, to the best of my knowledge, we have not had any of such issues, we have not heard any report from any students so far. The ones we met on ground, we have tried them and we have also disciplined them so whether you are a student of staff if you are found wanting, you will be dealt according to the rule of law”

To curb cultism, Onimwao said, “We initiated the programme we call AAU Prays. AAU Prays is a religious programme, where we gather together as a community to pray. Part of it is that we call eminent men of God across the nation to come and address both staff and students and we also have a deliberate policy to speak to our students, speak to our staff and let them see the need to help us project AAU positively because in the past, many of the things that were said about AAU were exaggerated. So, we decided to tackle it from the religious and social angles.