UNILAG Crisis: Due Process Was Followed In Removing VC, Says Babalakin

The Chairman, Governing Council of the University of Lagos, Dr. Wale Babalakin, SAN, has insisted that due process was followed in the removal of the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Toyin Ogundipe.

Recall that the council had sacked Ogundipe over allegations of financial misappropriation.

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On his part, Ogundipe maintained that he remained the VC, adding that he had also briefed his counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, to file a legal action against the council.

The Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Universities in Nigeria, CVC, through its Secretary-General, Prof Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, had also said that due process was breached in the removal of the VC.

“The challenge we have here with the particular action is that the council did not follow due process and indeed the communication from the embattled Vice Chancellor is clear to that effect,” Ochefu said.

Meanwhile, Babalakin, while speaking to news men at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Terminal two (MMA2), said no law had been breached in removing Ogundipe whom he accused of “recklessly looting the University funds”, according to Daily Trust.

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He claimed that the statement coming from the University’s Senate was actually from a few professors who had backed Ogundipe, adding that UNILAG was not facing any crisis.

“There is a vocal minority benefiting from the corruption going on in the University.

“The resistance you are seeing is because a group of people have decided to do it right.

“What you heard was a meeting of some professors”, he said.

Babalakin SAN also said that Ogundipe was not being guided properly by his legal advisers.

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“He had all the opportunity for fair hearing.

“I am a product of the law, I follow the law; I avoid rabble rousing.

“There was due process in his removal.

“Go and read the law.

“His legal advisers have not done a very thorough job,” he said.

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