Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba
By Anietie Akpan
The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN; has denied taking sides with the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, in a sexual harassment case.
A female staff of the University, Engineer Folasade Adebayo had accused the VC of sexual harassment and it was speculated that she might be suspended by the Governing Council of the University.
Quoting from SaharaReporters, Ndoma-Egba had recently said, “suspending anybody is premature. It’s totally premature because that matter had been on before I came here, and my predecessor tried to resolve it in a peaceful way – to see the both parties to talk about it.
“And, the Engineer Adebayo didn’t appear to be satisfied because she still wrote another petition. And those audios have gained a wider circulation, and there are now different versions”.
He further stated, “If I had taken sides, I would have announced my decision, which would have been improper because I am Pro Chancellor. But there is a Council, and every decision must be taken by the council, not the Pro Chancellor. And that is why it became necessary for us to summon an emergency council meeting to discuss it.”
About what they said Ndoma-Egba said concerning dealing with the union when he visited the Oloye of Oye-Ekiti, Oba Michael Ademolaju, the Pro Chancellor opined, “what they said I said at the Oba’s palace is totally untrue. There are recordings of my speech.
“I think somebody is just being mischievous. What I said was that I was appointed as Pro Chancellor of the University on November 20. The union went to the media on November 25. They didn’t even give me an opportunity to wade into the matter.
“And after, they have written petitions directly to the Minister. There are procedures; the grievance management procedures in every institution.
“And these are all issues that they will look at. Yesterday, I met with the unions. All the unions apart from ASUU. So what was quoted is untrue, except they play the recording of my speech, that is totally out of it. Nothing close to what I said”.
Ndoma-Egba stated that he expected some positive reports on FUOYE considering their performance saying, “I have just come as Pro-Chancellor. Federal University Oye-Ekiti was set up with 12 others in 2011. I was in Lokoja before I was swapped to Ekiti. Today, Oye-Ekiti is the 4th mostsubscribed university in the country. That is not our assessment.
“That is the assessment of JAMB, looking at the number of applicants and all of that. Today, our student population is about almost 55,000 in 14 years. Today, we are ranked number 15 in 14 years. These are remarkable achievements that are not in the news. We are in the news now for inane reasons.
“You know? So please also have that background. We should, as we promote these negative stories, we should also talk about the remarkable achievements of the university within a very short time”.