The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has reacted to the sack of its members by the Lagos State University (LASU).

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Adebayo Ninalowo-led governing council of the university wielded the big stick in a meeting on Thursday.

The lecturers were accused of “unauthorised removal, retention and dissemination or publication of official confidential documents”.

The sacked lecturers include Anthony Dansu, Senior Lecturer, Department of Human Kinetics, Sports and Health Education; Adeolu Oyekan, Lecturer 1, Department of Philosophy, and Kemi Abodunrin-Shonibare, an associate professor, Department of African Languages, Literature and Communication Arts.

The trio are the Secretary, Assistant Secretary and Treasurer of the university’s chapter of the ASUU, respectively.

Offences

The LASU lecturers were accused of violating the university’s law against unauthorised possession and use of official documents.

In 2018, ahead of the selection process for a new registrar at the university, the university’s chapter of ASUU petitioned the governing council, accusing the immediate past Registrar, Akinwunmi Lewis, of illegally backdating the professorial promotion of the incumbent vice-chancellor, Olanrewaju Fagbohun.

The petition, which was signed by Messrs Dansu and Oyekan, accused Mr Lewis of misinterpreting the decision of the council, which was taken on May 7, 2014, to promote the vice-chancellor by backdating the promotion to 2008.

The union had attached a document classified as ‘confidential’ and containing the purported governing council’s decision to the petition.

An irate management accused the leadership of ASUU of unauthorised use of the document which was believed to have been illegally taken from Mr Fagbohun’s file in the office of the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Fabunmi Adeleke.

ASUU reacts

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of ASUU in LASU, Tony Dansu, has reacted on behalf of the union.

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Mr Dansu, who is also among those sacked on Thursday, said “they are being punished for activities they carried out on behalf of the union”.

When asked for the next line of action, he told PREMIUM TIMES that ASUU will meet to determine that.

“As an individual, I can’t take any step. I acted on behalf of the union likewise others but the university is punishing us individually.

“It is a battle of the union and ASUU will meet to discuss the process to use. We will reach out to the national body because ASUU does not rush into issues with emotions.”