The Ekiti State University Refuses to Reinstate Hundreds of Illegally-Dismissed Staff Despite Court Ruling

Published 7th Mar, 2021

By Gabriel Ogunjobi



The management of the Ekiti State University (EKSU) has refused to obey the ruling of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in Akure, Ondo State, calling for the reinstatement of over a hundred academic and non-academic staff dismissed from work in December 2019.

Instead, the university filed a case for ‘leave of appeal” and “an order for stay of execution” at the Ado-Ekiti Division of the Appeal Court and at the Akure Division of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.

The affected workers in EKSU cut across members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU), Senior Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). 

Out of the over 1000 disengaged workers at the same time, 32 workers of NAAT, 86 NASU/SSANU and others among ASUU approached the court with the conviction that their job termination was “politically-motivated”.
CONTROVERSIAL STAFF DOWNSIZING 

After assuming office in 2019, Professor Edward Olanipekun, the Vice-Chancellor of EKSU, invited an external firm, Devtage Ltd, to audit the institution’s finances and its workforce.

The intention was to downsize the workforce and lay off staff with certificate forgery, irregular appointment, overage and other sundry allegations. The institution ended up terminating the appointment of staff who were employed under due process as well.

In early January 2020, a total of 363 staff were reinstated following their appeal before the Bamitale Omole-led Governing Council but the rest of the dismissed staff are yet to get justice.

When the case of these aggrieved members was heard before the Ekiti State House of Assembly in November 2020, there was a controversy among the major players: Akin Arogundade, the school registrar; Professor Samuel Oye Bandele, the former Vice Chancellor and the current Vice Chancellor.

The registrar said he was not aware of the request made by the former VC to the Governing Council to recruit more staff in the school but Omole said otherwise.

The current VC also defended his decision to dismiss some staff, giving financial incapability as the reason. He however agreed to recall some of them if the state government could increase EKSU’s subvention. 

The Funminiyi Afuye-led House of Assembly promisd that the legislature would make the recommendation to Kayode Fayemi, the state Governor.

But, according to a source within the school, the dismissal was because of a clash of interests between the former VC and the Governing Council. 

“The Governing Council felt sidelined about the recruitment because their list was not part of the people recruited in 2016,” the source said.

“When they brought their list to the VC in 2017, they said they were not aware of recruitment done last October.”

FIJ confirmed that only the staff who commenced work in 2016 were laid off. Newer staff from 2017 up till date were spared from the recommendations of the audit firm.




source: https://fij.ng/article/ekiti-state-university-refuses-to-reinstate-hundreds-of-illegally-dismissed-staff-despite-court-ruling/

Nobody obeys court order in this country again

SooWan:
Nobody obeys court order in this country again

All thanks to Buhari and APC.

how many staffs do they have that, they were also to disengage 1000 staffs