FUTO Senate chides ASUU over Ibrahim’s professorial appointment

• Demands apology from union within two weeks

Senate of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) has condemned the action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities – National Executive Committee (ASUU-NEC) and ASUU, Owerri zone, for demanding the resignation of Prof. Nnenna Oti, FUTO’s eight substantive Vice-Chancellor over the appointment and promotion of Isa Ali Ibrahim to a professor.

Rising from the 493rd extraordinary meeting held in the institution on Tuesday, the body said it viewed the statement by ASUU in Awka, last weekend, against Oti as an “unprovoked attack on FUTO, aimed at degrading its image.”

The institution, therefore, demanded that the union apologise and also retract the statement within two weeks or face legal action.

In a resolution after the meeting signed by the Registrar / Secretary of the Senate, Chiedozie Uba, the institution’s highest body insisted that Ibrahim’s promotion “followed the Act, CAPF 23, Volume 7, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, and the regulations governing conditions of appointment of senior staff of the university (2016),” stressing: “He, therefore, enjoys the full privileges and rights of a FUTO professor.”

The Senate also noted that the appointment had been, as established by the prima facieinitiative of the then Governing Council of the university prior to the appointment of the substantive vice-chancellor, therefore, passing a vote of confidence on Oti.