Gabriel Dike
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has disowned the newly elected officers of ASUU-LASU branch insisting the Dr. Oyewunmi led exco remains the recognise body on campus.
ASUU National President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi in a strong-worded letter to LASU Vice-Chancellor, Prof Olarenwaju Fagbohun, he described the new ASUU-LASU exco as illegal and unknown to ASUU.
The letter dated January 27 and titled: ‘Re-Election of new ASUU-LASU branch executives’ said the attention of the national body has been drawn to the purported election of a new branch executive committee of ASUU-LASU.
His words: ”Our union states unequivocally that the executive committee known to the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU is the Dr. Isaac Oyewunmi-led executive, whose election was supervised by a representative of the national body and approved by ASUU NEC.
The vice-chancellor may wish to note that in line with the tradition of our union until the cases of the dismissal of the five members of executives of ASUU-LASU is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, they remain the recognised executives of ASUU-LASU. This situation shall subset until NEC approves that election should hold in the branch.”
ASUU national advised the VC and the university administration against giving recognition to the illegal group by dealing with them as officials of ASUU-LASU branch, stating ”they do not represent ASUU national and therefore cannot act on its behalf.”
The elected chairman of ASUU-LASU, Dr. Adeolu Bakare said the new exco is not aware of any letter from the national body and refused to react to the insinuations by the Dr. Oyewunmi-led that LASU management is behind their emergence.
Dr. Bakare told Daily Sun that the preoccupation of the new exco is to move ASUU-LASU forward and reconcile with colleagues that were aggrieved with the union, adding ”we can work together to promote the union and the university.”
According to him, for one to be a member of ASUU, one must be academic staff engaged in LASU while on check-off dues, Bakare said it is the prerogative of congress and that the exco can only act based on the directive of congress.
The new union last week sacked the Dr. Oyewunmi-led exco of ASUU-LASU branch and appointed a five-member caretaker committee to run the affairs of the union . The decision was taken at the congress held at old Sociology building.
The caretaker committee which gave reasons for their action said the tenure of the Dr. Oyewunmi-led exco, including Dr. Tony Dansu, Dr. Oyekan, Dr. Aboderin, and Dr. Suenu expired in February 2018, adding ”unfortunately, all of them are no longer in the service of LASU.”
”This means in effect that since 2018 we have had no functioning ASUU-LASU exco, as a result of which no progress at all has been made in regard to the corporate welfare of members.
The Dr. Oyewunmi-led exco in a letter to the VC said the call for ‘congress of ASUU-LASU’ by non-exco members is illegal and violates numerous rules of the union, noting ”there are strong reports that the idea has the backing of the university administration.”
The illegal ‘congress’ in the name of ASUU-LASU is capable of generating avoidable crises if not nipped in the bud. It is our hope that the university administration will call these persons to order in the interest of peace and order within the university.”