From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government has maintained that the erstwhile Chairman of the governing council of the University of Lagos (Unilag), Dr. Wale Babalakin, was indicted in the report of the seven-man presidential visitation panel to the institution.
The presidential visitation panel was constituted by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, to unravel the true cause of administrative crisis in the University and the face-off between the former governing council led by Babalakin and the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, which led to the unlawful suspension of the Vice Chancellor by the Dr. Babalakin led governing council.
Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong, in a statement on Sunday accused Babalakin of sponsoring media reports that are not correct, thus misleading and misinforming the public.
He said: “The attention of the Federal Ministry of Education has been drawn to several syndicated publications in the media insinuating among other things that the presidential visitation panel to the University of Lagos indicted the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ogundipe and the management of the University. The stories also posited that the report exonerated the former Chairman of Council, Dr. Wale Babalakin. That is not correct.
“The Ministry wishes to state in very categorical terms that these claims are false, unfounded, and to say the least, mischievous, as they have no bearing with the report submitted by the panel which was chaired by a reputable retired Army General, Martin Luther Agwai, one of the finest Officers of the Nigerian Army.”
He recalled that the seven-man presidential visitation panel to the University of Lagos submitted its report alongside other panels to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu on 31st August, 2021, and government is in the process of setting up White Paper Committees to address all the findings and recommendations of the Panels, including that of UniLag in a holistic manner.
He equally recalled that government had earlier issued a White Paper on the report of the 2020 Special Presidential Visitation Panel to the University of Lagos which culminated in the dissolution of the former Governing Council and the reinstatement of the Vice Chancellor.
He, thus, advised stakeholders and Nigerians to ignore in totality, the false, malicious and self-serving publications as well as their orchestration on social and electronic media while await the formal release of the government white paper on the panel’s reports.