The University Of Port Harcourt chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has decried the closure of its secretariat by the management of the University, describing the act “unjust”.
Dr Austen Sabo, chairman of the institution Uniport chapter of ASUU, told newsmen on Friday in Abuja that the welfare of academic staff of the university had been jeopardized following the closure.
Sabo said that the union had deployed “every peaceful means” to address the issues with the school management to no avail.
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Sabo also expressed concern over the termination of the appointment of a Professor in the University, Frank Ugiomoh, over issues in the graduate programme of Fine Arts and Design Department, and declared that due process was not followed.
He explained that the Union had constituted a committee involving eminent scholars, and discovered that the Professor was innocent.
“The case of termination of the appointment of Prof. Ugiomoh by the university is among the many displays of recklessness and abuse of power under the present Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ndowa Lale.
“The case of Ugiomoh is one that demonstrates that Lale has turned the university into a fiefdom,” the union official alleged.
He, therefore, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, to wade into the matter.
Efforts to reach Prof. Lale proved abortive, but a top source at the university confirmed the sack of Ugiomoh and the closure of the ASUU secretariat but refused to speak further on the matter.
