Group demands visitation panel for LASU

• Opposes return of council chair, others

Worried by the lingering crisis in Lagos State University (LASU), a coalition of civil society groups in the state has called on Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu to set up a visitation panel for the institution.

The group also opposed the planned reappointment of the university’s governing council chairman, Prof Adebayo Ninalowo alleging that his continued headship of the council would be inimical to the restoration of peace in the institution.

The group, comprising Work bond International Network (WIN), United Action for Democracy (UAD), Sahara Education Development Initiative (SEIDI) and All Nigeria Students Against Neo-Liberalism Attack (ANSA) at a briefing in Lagos and led by Omotaje Olawale Saint said a visitation panel was necessary to look into the raging controversies in the institution.

“We had alerted governor Sanwo-Olu in our letter that a visitation panel has become imperative to unravel the fraud cloaked by integrity by the current leadership of LASU. The recent attempt by the university management to enforce oath of secrecy on staff of the school further attested to our assertion that the leadership are desperate to allegedly perpetuate reign of terror…” the group also opposed plans to return the governing council chairman and some members of the council for another term of four years describing the move as a betrayal of collective interest, particularly the stakeholders in the university.

“It is evident Prof Ninalowo’s reappointment will only lead to a continuation of the regime of blackmail and high handedness against officials and members of the LASU chapter of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). We urge the governor to resist the pressure currently being mounted by beneficiaries and profiteers of the lingering crisis in LASU whose primary objective is to perpetuate Ninalowo’s headship of the council.

“We are deeply concerned that the institution’s management, under the guise of carrying out its statutory responsibility has resulted in a deliberate witch hunt of members of academic staff particularly officials of LASU-ASUU.