unilag

Security has been tightened around the Senate building of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) as its Senate meets at the Ade Ajayi Main auditorium to discuss the sudden removal of Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as Vice Chancellor by the Governing Council in Abuja on Wednesday.

Prof Theophilus Soyombo of the Faculty of Science was announced Acting Vice Chancellor in the wee hours of Thursday by the Registrar and Secretary to Council, Mr. Oladejo Azeez.

The Nation observed access to the Senate Building, the administrative hub of the University, housing the offices of the Vice Chancellor, other principal officers as well as the Senate Chamber, was restricted.

Visitors and members of staff without offices in the building were not allowed in.

The situation may have forced the Senate to move its meeting, which is ongoing, to the main auditorium

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are also scheduled to hold a Congress to debate Ogundipe’s removal.

Anaedoonline.ng learnt ASUU warned Soyombo not to resume as An. VC. However, a source said Soyombo described his appointment as a “call to service”.

Embattled Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe has described his removal from office as false.

He said he remains vice chancellor of the institution.

In a statement following the Registrar’s announcement of the Governing Council’s decision to remove him, Ogundipe said the removal was a figment of the Registrar’s imagination.

The statement titled: “Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos by Oladejo Azeez, Esq” reads:

“The attention of the University of Lagos (Unilag) management has been drawn to the ‘Notice to the General Public on the Removal of the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos’; dated August 12, 2020 and signed by Oladejo Azeez, Esq, Registrar and Secretary to Council, stating that the current Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin T. Ogundipe, FAS has been removed from office with immediate effect.

“This is untrue and a figment of his imagination. Therefore, stakeholders of UNILAG and the general public are advised to disregard this mischievous disinformation about the sitting Vice Chancellor of Unilag, contained in that notice. Professor Ogundipe still remains UNILAG’s Vice Chancellor.”