Magnus Eze, Enugu

The Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, has said the five leaders of the local chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) recently disengaged by the institution were not punished for unionism.

The Rector, Prof. Austin Nweze,  told Daily Sun the governing council of the institution took the decision, after a disciplinary committee discovered they had accumulated bad records overtime.

The national leadership of ASUP recently accused the management of IMT of victimising its members, including withholding of check-off dues, among other issues.

But, Nweze alleged they were involved in gross insubordination, confrontation with authorities and attempts to pull down the institution for their selfish interests.

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He also said those affected had serious academic offences in their employment files, including plagiarism, and involvement in admission-racketeering at some point.

“Clearly, they took more than they could chew. It became obvious that it was no longer ASUP they were pursuing but personal agenda, now masquerading as ASUP executive. One of them was a case of plagiarism. He wrote a 10 chapter book; out of the 10, nine chapters were copied verbatim from another person’s work, which you know is academic theft.

“Ordinarily, that should have led to summary dismissal but, in wisdom and human face nature, Council gave him six months suspension and downgraded him by two grades.

“Without telling the national ASUP the truth, they told them they were being victimised. The true position is that they were sacked for what they had done in the past and, in the present, for trying to pull down IMT and we had to pull them down first,” Nweze said.