Association, UNAA, has petitioned President
Goodluck Jonathan, over the suspension of
Chairman of the Governing Council and Pro-
Chancellor, Dr. Emeka Enejere, from office, asking
him to institute a full scale investigation into the
activities of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bartho Okolo.
Appeal to Jonathan
The association, in the petition signed by the
National President, Mr. Andrew Oru, also appealed
to President Jonathan to order the immediate
reinstatement of Dr. Enejere as Pro-Chancellor of
the university.
Oru recalled a plethora of cases where the vice
chancellor awarded contracts for projects in the
university without recourse to due process.
He said most of the contracts awarded by the VC
had yet to be completed, despite the fact that
almost one hundred percent payment had been
made to the contractors.
In one instance, he said though N46.703 million had
been paid for construction of the proposed
Umunkara Street (University Secondary School
Road, Nsukka, out of the N49.161 million for the
project, the job was yet to be completed six months
after it was to have been delivered in four weeks.
Minister accused
He accused the Supervising Minister of Education,
Mr. Nyesom Wike, of replacing the Pro-Chancellor
with his own lawyer in Rivers State, Mr. Emmanuel
Akara, SAN.
Oru alleged that the Pro-Chancellor’s problem
arose out of the report submitted to the Supervising
Minister of Education by the university’s Governing
Council which indicted the Vice Chancellor of
monumental corruption and profligacy.
The petition, dated December 20, 2013, read: “Your
Excellency, as you can easily discern from the
above initial narration, the action of a purported
suspension of the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of
Governing Council, without reason and on no
available legal authority by the Supervising
Minister, runs completely at variance with the
avowed adherence to your government’s due
process regime and laudable transformation
agenda.
Wike and his lawyer
“Further shock, the same Minister on December 19,
2013, announced the appointment of one Emmanuel
Akara, SAN, who is his own lawyer in Rivers State
to replace the Pro-Chancellor.
“We, as responsible major stakeholders and
apostles of zero tolerance for corruption in
whatever form, are unable to keep to the sidelines
and watch the decimation of our dreams as
epitomised in the great institution which we have
lived to cherish and protect.
“In the light of the above and all other collateral
circumstances, we here-in below examine this
volatile situation with all sense of responsibility in
the context of all extant rules, laws, norms of civility
and respect for the visitor.
“Without mincing words, it has practically been a
war situation for the number of years that the Vice
Chancellor, Prof. Bartho Okolo, has been in charge
of the university’s affairs. However, with vast
resources at his disposal and his readiness to act
with brute force of the military style, his challenges,
be they academic staff unions or students or even
the previous Governing Council, were simply not his
match.
“He simply plundered and roared and every lip
remained awed and sealed. It was simply a culture
of impunity and naked megalomania and profligacy.
Nemesis, however, came calling sometime in April
2013 when Your Excellency, as visitor, and a bona-
fide indigene of the academic environment, in
apparent pursuit of your famous trnsformation
agenda, appointed a well-groomed fresh Governing
Council under the captainship of Dr. Emeka Enejere
as Pro-Chancellor.
“This appointment, like all other appointments to
different offices within the universities of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and in particular, in your
capacity as the visitor.
Call for Enejere’s reinstatement
“In the circumstances, we, hereby, respectfully call
for the reinstatement of Dr. Emeka Enejere as the
Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing
Council of the University of Nigeria, even though we
are aware, from enquiries, that he has not even
been officially informed of his purported removal as
required by law.
“Further, we, hereby, use this medium to invite your
intervention to cause the relevant security agencies
to institute a full blown investigation into this dark
stain placed on your administration’s posturing of
good governance and probity.
Want VC Okolo suspended
“Finally sir, we respectfully call for the immediate
suspension from office of the Vice Chancellor, Prof.
Bartho Okolo, to pave way for an undiluted and
unhindered investigation of the contents of the
‘offensive’ report of the Governing Council
submitted to the Supervising Minister of Education
by the purportedly removed Pro-Chancellor.
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