Two of the five academic staff members dismissed by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University’s governing council have publicly rejected the allegations used to justify their termination, describing the charges as fabricated, the process as irregular, and the dismissals as connected to internal power struggles and governance disputes that had preceded and shaped the disciplinary proceedings against them.
Professor Chike Osegbue of the Political Science Department, who was suspended for six months before his dismissal was announced, said he had not received any formal notification of his sacking and had heard of it only through media reports. He said his suspension had been triggered by his refusal to teach a postgraduate course to students who had been admitted two weeks before their examinations, a situation he said violated the institution’s regulations and amounted to the kind of certificate racketeering he said was rampant in the university.
He said his difficulties with the administration dated from his emergence as the top-ranked candidate in the vice-chancellorship interview at which the current Vice-Chancellor Professor Kate Azuka Omenugha had reportedly placed fifth, but was selected by the institution’s visitor, Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo. He said the matter was already before the courts and declined to elaborate further on the governance allegations against the VC, noting only that petitions implicating the administration had been filed with the EFCC.
Comrade Emeka Nwabunnia of the Microbiology Department, who served 30 months of suspension before his sacking, denied the sexual exploitation allegations against him entirely and claimed that a video tendered as evidence was fabricated using artificial intelligence technology. He said his record as a former ASUU chairman at the institution was built on resistance to exactly the kind of practices he was being accused of, and that his integrity as a labour leader and his institutional track record were incompatible with the charges.
