The crisis rocking the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the Federal University Oye Ekiti chapter worsened on Tuesday when aggrieved members disrupted a congress presided over by the zonal chairman of the union, Akure branch Prof Olu Olu.
The aggrieved lecturers insisted the embattled chairman of the chapter Dr. Akinyemi Omonijo must step aside first before any congress would hold on the campus.
The congress of the academic union was about to hold at about 1pm at the venue on Tuesday when angry members stormed the venue to stop the meeting, rang bell, made so much noise and chased away those who wanted it to hold.
A leader of the union and Dean of Faculty of Arts of the university, Dr. Popoola Tajudeen, who spoke about the cause of the disruption said: “There was to be a congress but there was no congress because our members felt strongly that Prof Olu Olu who has been part of our problem in this chapter should not now come to foist any congress on us and they insisted that he cannot hold any congress when the chairman of our chapter that he is imposing on us has committed impeachment offences.
“There has been a resolution on ground that the chairman has committed impeachable offences and should go.
“Our people really felt bad and demonstrated their grievances. They spoke their mind. However there was no casualty.
“The demands of our members who insist they are still part of ASUU is that current chairman of our branch Omonijo should step down because he has committed impeachable offences.
“Our people cannot allow a system where some people from outside would cone and lord over us.
“We have our own internal problem and we should be allowed to solve it internally. Our people want ASUU to move on but we don’t want Omonijo again,” he said.
A senior lecturer, who spoke on condition of anonymity said the ASUU leaders lost the support of their colleagues when they started saying a lot of things that were not right about the university and the management of the institution.
‘’A lot of us lecturers felt bad about this,’’ she said. ‘’The crisis cannot be resolved until he is removed as the members do not recognize him any longer. Today we told the zonal leaders he no longer speaks for us.’’
Staff deflated the tire of the car wagon bought for the school ASUU leader, saying since he was no longer representing them he could no longer use the vehicle bought with their dues.
The school Chief Security Officer asked people to leave the hall when the noise became too much.