Due Process: Makinde’s sack of LAUTECH Vice-Chancellor illegal, says SSANU

*The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, LAUTECH Chapter, has unequivocally condemned Governor Seyi Makinde’s order to sack the incumbent Vice-Chancellor of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

A fresh industrial crisis may be brewing again, in the academic community following Governor Seyi Makinde’s recent ‘step aside’ order to dismiss Prof. Michael Olufisayo Ologunde, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), in Ogbomoso, Oyo State of Nigeria.

ConsumerConnect reports the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), LAUTECH Branch, Ogbomoso Chapter, has frowned on the order and said Governor Makinde’s directive to dismiss Prof. Ologunde did not follow due process.

Prof. Michael Olufisayo Ologunde, Vice-Chancellor of LAUTECH, Ogbomoso

The Governor had ordered the Vice-Chancellor to step aside until further notice Friday, April 16, 2021.

Makinde’s decision was conveyed in a letter by Olasunkanmi Olaleye, the State Honourable Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, and sighted by the publication.

The letter stated: “His Excellency, Engr. Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State and Visitor to the Ladoke Akintola University, has ordered that the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. M. O. Ologunde, should step aside until further notice.”

“As a result, the VC has been instructed to hand over immediately to the next principal officer in rank in order to ensure the institution’s regular operations continue uninterrupted.”

The decision was reportedly taken after the governor had accused the Vice-Chancellor of instigating workers of the University to agitate the payment of their unpaid salaries shortly after Oyo State took over control of the University.

However, the Oyo State Government’s decision did not go down well with SSANU, as the Union after holding an emergency meeting to address the directive in a statement Sunday, April 18 said Governor Makinde’s directive was illegal.

The Union in the statement unequivocally condemned the governor’s move to dismiss the incumbent Vice-Chancellor.

It emphasised that only the Governing Council of LAUTECH, and neither Governor Makinde nor the Oyo State Ministry of Education has the power to remove Prof. Ologunde as Vice-Chancellor.

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