Information reaching us today from Benin according to our
source learn''''t that , The Academic Staff Union of Universities has
accused the Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, of high-handedness
in his quest to take over the possession of some property in the
University of Benin.
The National President of ASUU,
Dr. Nasir Fagge, made the allegation in a statement obtained by
journalists on Monday in Abuja while reacting to the face-off between
the state government and the university.
According to him, the
action of the state government is unjustified and a calculated attempt
to instill fear in the minds of the academics, who reside in those
buildings.
Edo State Governor’s Special Adviser on Media and
Communication, Mr. Kassim Afegbua, said what the government did was in
line with the rule of law.It was also recalls that students of UNIBEN
recently protested against the destruction of some buildings occupied
by senior lecturers of the institution allegedly on the orders of the
state government.
Our correspondent also gathered that ASUU
also said that some of the academics, who fell victims of the
destruction, were already counting their losses as important books and
certificates, owned by the lecturers, were buried in the rubble.
Fagge
said, “In an attempt to forcibly take possession of some property of
the university on which litigation is still ongoing. Members at the
University of Benin has always been attack on our by agents of the
Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, which has drawn attention
closer to the institution.
“On December 23, 2014, unidentified
agents of the Edo State Government mercilessly beat up and forcefully
threw out our members, who occupied two property of the university under
litigation and purportedly sold to some powerful individuals in the
state.
“On January 5, 2015, more of our members were brutalized
by agents of the government with more houses destroyed. On January 6,
many of our members, including Professors, were given the beating of
their lives when these unidentified agents swooped on ASUU
members, who dared to visit the site of the destroyed houses. The
houses of these members were destroyed with their property, including
books and certificates, buried in the rubble.
“We believe that
ours is a civilized society, where the rule of law should be allowed to
prevail rather than substituting it with the crude doctrine of ‘might is
right’. It is very sad that a government that should provide
accommodation for its citizens so crudely preoccupied itself with the
destruction of their houses.
“It is indeed very sad that a
supposed ‘peoples’ Governor, a beneficiary of the rule of law and a
former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, should be behind
rendering Nigerians homeless.”
Afegbua Defends government action“
Said we are not in the business of giving threats; What we have simply
done is to recover and repossess Edo State Government’s assets, located
around Government House in GRA.” what we did was according to the rule
of law and not the rule of man as being presently sensationalized by the
UNIBEN community. We will not be intimidated as government, neither are we going to succumb to blackmail.“
What we expected ASUU
to to is to get proper briefing and interface with government not
jumping into the easiest blackmail of threat to their members. We all
know that Oshiomhole is a unionist, He understands the dynamics of
unionism and the limits of same no matter what.“
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