Workers seek VC’s removal, as LASU shifts convocation

LAGOS State University (LASU) workers, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff of Universities (NASU), have called on the LASU Visitor, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, to urgently appoint an acting vice chancellor.

This follows the ongoing crisis in the institution, at the height of which the Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Oladapo Obafunwa, was chased out of the institution.

The unions demanded yesterday after their meeting that Obafunwa must go on terminal leave for peace to return to the institution. Besides, an official bulletin from the university management has indicated that the 20th convocation ceremony billed for today has been postponed, while new date would be announced later.

The convocation lecture, slated to be delivered yesterday by the former Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, could also not be given as the unions shut the school’s two main entrances, preventing vehicular movements from and into the campus. In another development, the Lagos State Government has asked the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgment that declared unlawful the restriction of movement during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in the state.

Justice Ibrahim Idris of a Federal High Court, Lagos, had last Tuesday declared that the restriction policy violates citizens’ right to personal liberty and freedom of movement as protected by sections 35 and 41 of the constitution.

However, the Lagos State Government, through its Solicitor-General, Mr. Lawal Pedro (SAN), is contending that Idris was wrong to have made such declaration. In the notice of appeal filed yesterday, Pedro insisted that the judge did not consider all other relevant provisions of the law before making his decision.

He noted: “The court is deemed to know and is obliged to consider all relevant provisions of the constitution and existing laws before arriving at its judgment.”

The LASU crisis started on Monday, two days to the convocation ceremony, when the aggrieved workers locked out Obafunwa and other principal officers from the premises.

Also, Obafunwa and his team were assaulted by the protesting workers, who bullied and pelted them with sachet water, until he was led out of the premises.

As at 4p.m yesterday when The Guardian contacted the Chairman of ASUU-LASU, Dr. Adekunle Idris, the two main gates were still under lock, while Idris said the situation would remain so pending when Fashola appoints an acting vice chancellor.