By Gabriel Dike
The Governing Council of Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka, has sacked 14 lecturers and 17 non-academic staff members.
It also removed the Provost at the Oleh campus and a dean, School of Postgraduate Studies for alleged misconduct.
The governing council also sanctioned several lecturers and non-teaching staff for extortion, sexual harassment, abandonment of duty, gross misconduct, denial of promotion for some years, and also issued strong warning to some staff for alteration of students’ scores and abuse of office.
Report of the sanctions was published on the website of the DELSU – www.delsu.edu.ng.
The Registrar of DELSU and Secretary to the council, Mr. Daniel Urhibo on the university website said the governing council at its 101st regular meeting held on Friday, August 18, considered and approved the recommendations from the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee (SSDC) and meted out the sanctions.
The senior academic staff affected include six senior lecturers, many Lecturers I and II while a professor at the Political Science Department and Provost at Oleh campus were also removed. The council barred them from holding any official position in DELSU for five years with effect from November 5, 2015. Also, a professor in the Agric Economics and Extension Department and another at the postgraduate school were affected and issued warning.
Among the dismissed senior non-teaching staff are two chief accountants, a chief architect, senior assistant registrar, for an act of gross misconduct and denied promotion for the next three years and one principal internal auditor.
Eight junior workers dismissed by DELSU governing council were said to have engaged in fraudulent act, tampering with examination GAC 300, issuing fake school fees printout to students, tampering with Aper score, disregard for constituted authority, impersonation/assumption of false identity, dereliction of duty and absenteeism/failure to submit copies of appraisal papers.
In the document titled: ‘’Consideration of recommendations from the senior staff disciplinary committee (SSDC) to the governing council,” 17 academic staff members, mostly Associate Professors and senior lecturers were reprimanded for plagiarism while two Readers were also issued warning letters as well as denied promotion for two years.
Some of the reasons SSDC gave for the staff dismissal include collection of money from students, alteration of students score by instructing students to help compile/transfer results from marks sheets submitted by various lecturers handed over to the lecturer as course adviser, gross misconduct during conduct of 2013/2014 Post UTME, professional misconduct and sexual harassment.
In the 2011/2012 and 2014/2015 academic session, the university expelled 86 students for impersonation during examination, gross misconduct, examination malpractice and four cases of attempted murder against 100 Level Business Education student, 500 Level Business Administration student and 400 Level Sociology student as well as a case of rape against 200level Political Science student.
The Public Relations Officer of DELSU, Mr. Agbure Edward declined to comment on the governing council decision, stating that he is no longer the image maker of the university but he didn’t respond to calls and text messages to get him to forward the phones of the Registrar.