Gbenro Adesina
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has been removed from office by the governing council of the institution.
Ogundipe’s removal was announced on Wednesday during a meeting of the university’s governing council at the National Universities Commission (NUC) headquarters in Abuja.
The meeting, which was presided over by Wale Babalakin, pro-chancellor and chairman of the council, had 11 out of the 12 council members in attendance, including the VC.
Seven members of the council voted for Ogundipe’s removal while four voted against it.
One member, however, voted that he be placed on suspension.
In a notice intimating the general public of the VC’s removal with immediate effect dated August 12, 2020 and signed by the Institution’s Registrar and Secretary to Council, Oladejo Azeez, Esq, it was stated that the decision was based on Council’s investigation of serious act of wrong doing, gross misconduct, financial recklessness and abuse of office against him.
Babalakin and Ogundipe have been at loggerheads since March over the institution’s 51st convocation, which was abruptly cancelled just before it started.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, had asked the institution to suspend the ceremony after the chancellor accused the management of not following due process in reaching its decision as regards the event.
But Ogundipe insisted that the university followed the pro-chancellor’s directives and did not contravene any law.
In swift reaction, Ogundipe, in a statement he signed and circulated him, said he has not been sacked.
The statement titled, “Re: Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos by Oladejo Azeez, Esq”, read in part:
“The attention of the University of Lagos (Unilag) management has been drawn to the ‘Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos’; dated August 12, 2020 and signed by Oladejo Azeez, Esq, Registrar and Secretary to Council, stating that the current Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, FAS has been removed from office with immediate effect.
“The purported removal is an illegality and cannot stand as it is in clear violation of the University of Lagos Act, as amend.
“Therefore, stakeholders of Unilag and the general public are advised to disregard this mischievous disinformation about the sitting Vice Chancellor of Unilag, contained in that notice. Professor Ogundipe still remains Unilag’s Vice Chancellor”.
