The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Thursday debunked news making rounds that it had endorsed the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Atiku for the 2019 polls.
ASUU faulted online news that the Olabisi Onabanjo University (ASUUOOU) branch, Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) branch, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB) and other education stakeholders had endorsed Atiku and would work to ensure his success at the forthcoming presidential election.
The statement signed by the three chairmen of ASUU, OOU, Dr. Joel Okewale, UNAAB, Dr. Adebayo Oni and TASUED, Dr. Olatunji Ettu, dissociated the three branches from any endorsement of the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku.
The chairmen said ASUU does not operate along state divide, stating that there is no Ogun ASUU, just as there is no ASUU for other states. It added: ‘’Our union has a national charter with branches in universities. The purported ‘Ogun ASUU’ is, therefore, a fabrication, completely non-existent and a figment of the imagination of the reporter.”
According to the chairmen, while respecting the interest of individual academics and their political leaning, the union stated categorically that ASUU had no part in the said meeting where the resolution was made and also denied the involvement of ASUU in the resolution.
The statement added that ASUU viewed the use of its name in the news item as deliberate mischief by the newspaper who is aware that the union has branch executives in each of the public universities in Ogun State, and ought to have verified the news items before publishing.
‘’For the avoidance of doubt, ASUU states unequivocally that at no time were any of its representatives involved in any political gathering where the support was declared for any political party or candidate. We, therefore, dissociate ourselves from this extant online news and any such mischievous news item. We call on the public to be wary of such news with the intrinsic frivolity and cheap attempt to ride on our union’s integrity, it stated.