Choice of new VC splits Delta varsity council
From Sunny Ogefere, Asaba
MEMBERS of the governing council of the Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka are yet to reach a consensus on the appointment of a new vice-chancellor for the school.
Allegation of high-handedness against the chairman of the council, Justice Francis Tabai has split the council into two.
But Tabai has denied the allegation, assuring that the council would soon present its report to the Visitor, Governor James Ibori.
The incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Uvie Igun and some members of the council allegedly walked out of the council's meeting at the weekend as the deliberations were becoming chaotic.
Tension emanated from a similar walkout by two Senate members in the five-man body.
The Guardian learnt that the two members of the interview panel staged the walkout, to protest the decision to dump the guidelines for picking a new vice-chancellor after all the 13 contestants had been screened.
Trouble allegedly started when the vice-chancellor alerted the council that there was a split at the selection board meeting. He reportedly advised that the two reports of the board should be harmonised.
An external member of the council, Chief Samson Omene, allegedly told the council that there was a pending petition against the entire selection exercise, the petition, he said had been sent to Ibori.
He was said to have suggested that the governor should be allowed to take a decision on the petition before the choice of the new V.C is made.
Sources said that Tabai turned down the two requests, which prompted heated debates among the members.
Consequently, Igun and nine others, including Mr. Abel Diakparomre and Prof. Simon Umukoro, provost of the Asaba Campus of the university, walked out in protest.
Diakparomre, who is the Dean of Students Affairs and a representative of the Senate in the council, described the situation at the council meeting held at the Asaba campus during the weekend, as "chaotic".
He said: "The document (report) that was presented by the chairman of council was signed by him alone... He signed alone in order to hide the fact that some members of the selection board protested and left the meeting and therefore were not available to sign".
Diakparomre claimed that Tabai ignored the views by members of the council at the meeting that there should be a consensus on the selection process.
"When it was apparent that the chairman was not prepared to follow the due process as well as accommodate divergent views, the vice-chancellor and some of us had no choice than to leave in protest as we cannot be seen to be part of a selection process fraught with irregularities".
But Tabai, a judge of the Appeal Court, denied the allegations of irregularities, insisting that the selection of a new vice-chancellor for the university was properly conducted.
He said in spite of the walkout by the VC and others, the meeting went on, adding that the council would present its recommendations to the visitor.
Earlier, the chairman of the schools' chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Andy Egwunyenga, along with Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) member, Mr. Joseph Okonye, told journalists that the outcome of their referendum placed Prof. Eric Arubayi topmost among the contestants.
The Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and a selection of the ASUU have decried the referendum, saying it was prejudicial and illegal.
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