The Rainbow
The Federal Government has waded in the leadership crisis rocking the University of Lagos.
The Government on Friday directed that both the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Lagos, Wale Babalakin, and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe step aside from their official duties to allow the Special Visitation Panel set up by the President to investigate the rumpus.
A press statement by the spokesman of Ministry of Education spokesman, Ben Goong, said:“Government also directs the Senate of the University of Lagos to immediately convene to nominate an acting Vice-Chancellor from amongst its members for confirmation by the Governing Council,” the statement added.
The president, who is the visitor of the university, has therefore appointed a seven-member committee to investigate the controversies in the school.
Members of the panel areTukur Sa’ad as chairman, Victor Onuoha, Ikenna Oyindo, Ekanem Braide, Adamu K. Usman, Jimoh Bankole and Grace Ekanem.
The special visitation panel set up by the president is expected to submit its report within two weeks, Mr Goong said.
The president also directed the Senate of the school to convene to nominate an acting vice-chancellor form among its members for the confirmation of the university’s council, according to the state-owned Nigerian Television Authority.
The crisis in the University blew open when the Babalakin’s Governing Council on August 12,2020 announced the sacking of Ogundipe as vice chancellor and followed it up immediately with the appointment of Theophilus Soyombo as acting vice chancellor.
Ogundipe, however, rejected the Council’s decision, accusing Babalakin of gaslighting the the University Council in the purported removal in violation stipulated processes.
Ogundipe headed for an industrial court in Lagos seeking the nullification of his purported sacking,
