The allegations of mismanagement, abuse of office and fraud that a faction of the KWASU chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) levelled against former Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali have been described as unfounded.
The Gamji Members Association of Nigeria, Kwara State chapter, (GAMA), a civic group comprising top academics in Unilorin and other tertiary institutions, made the disclosure in a statement on Monday.
A faction of ASUU in KWASU had in a petition to Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq said Prof Ambali was unfit to head the Governor’s Visitation Panel to the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, on the ground that he allegedly committed several infractions during his tenure as the headship of Unilorin. The petition was signed by Dauda Adeshola and Olayiwola Olorisade.
But GAMA asserted in the statement by its Chairman, Dr Mohammed Ghali of the Department of Veterinary Medicine (Unilorin), that all the allegations were clearly targeted at frustrating the appointment of Prof Ambali and the state assignment given to him by Governor Abdulrazaq.
“We have taken time to study the eight-point petition as members of the affected university community and we found it to be spurious, malicious, injurious to the hard-earned integrity of Prof Ambali and therefore in bad faith because none of the allegations is true,” according to the statement.
“For instance, on the allegation of collusion with a group of academic staff to defraud the union by remitting check-off dues to unknown persons, we say this is a blatant lie. The record is there that remittances of the check-off dues were made only to account operated by the duly elected ASUU executives. How does remittance to the account of the legally constituted ASUU amount to collusion?
“The second issue about the ASUU members that the court ordered their reinstatement predated the tenure of Prof Ambali. Besides, all the decisions of the court had been complied with by his predecessor. It is sad that the factional ASUU of KWASU could seek to indict a man not connected to this issue.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that the writers of the unfounded petition just wanted to deliberately malign the person and integrity of Prof Ambali. It is even surprising that a faction of ASUU KWASU Malete should be raising dust for incidents that purportedly happened at the University of Ilorin, when ASUU Unilorin has all the correct information of what transpired during his tenure as the VC.
“As members of the academic community, especially in University of Ilorin, it is on record that Prof Ambali’s administration recorded huge success in addressing many infrastructural challenges and made palpable efforts in improving academic quality, creating more academic programmes and maintaining peace and tranquility on campus, as inherited from his predecessors.”
