President Muhammadu Buhari has been petitioned by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to investigate allegations of abuse of office and academic fraud against the Vice Chancellor of Michael Okpara University if Agriculture, Umudike, Prof. Hilary Odo Edeoga.
In a petition which was made available to the media, the lecturers are accusing the don of “extortion of money from students, extra-budgetary expenses, unlawful recruitment, misappropriation of TETFUND money, charging unapproved fees, fraudulent contract awards, and academic fraud”.
Signed by ASUU Chairman Dr. U.A.U Onyebinama and Secretary Dr. E.S Willie, the petition stated that Prof Edeoga issued statements of result to 90 students of Agribusiness department, a course of study that was neither approved nor accredited by the National University Commission. The students, ASUU said, were demobilised and decamped from the NYSC camp because of that.
The petition further accused the VC of running undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in Human Resources Management without NUC accreditation.
“The programme has graduated students at the Masters Degree level including the wife of the Vice Chancellor, Mrs Georgia Edeoga,” the petition stated.
ASUU is calling on the president to constitute a special Presidential Visitation Panel to investigate the way the university has been run in the last four years in order to establish the state of affairs in the school.