Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Benin (UNIBEN) chapter have threatened not to return to work for the Second Semester academic session scheduled for April 28, 2024.
This is coming in the wake of the disruption of an interactive session between the Labour Party’s (LP) governorship candidate of Edo State, Olumide Akpata and the University of Benin (UNIBEN) staff at the Senior Staff Club, which caused a lecturer of the University to be beaten and injured.
Due to the accusation that the students were not told about the session, Dr. Presley Osemwegie, the lecturer, was attacked and injured during the interaction on April 12, 2024.
In a press statement released on Monday, April 22, 2024, by the UNIBEN branch Chairman and secretary of ASUU, Ray Chikogu and Success Abusomwan. Osemwengie was described as having been “attacked; hit in the back of his head with a small axe and left for dead in the pool of his own blood by some of those in the company of the Students Union President”.
The statement continued, “It is necessary to note that this worrisome trend began with the assault by both students and non-students of the University on the person of the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin in September 2021 when she was humiliated and marched from her residence to the Main Gate of the University in very hostile circumstances. Other similar and very unsavoury incidents in which students of the University of Benin have threatened and brutalized lecturers of the University have also been reported at different times. This cannot continue”.
They demanded a committee be set up to investigate the matter. Also, they requested that all the identified culprits of the attack “including members of the executive committee of the Student Union Government of the University be taken through disciplinary process and sanctioned as appropriate”.
They concluded the statement by stating clearly, “We must reiterate the point that, subject to the authorization of the Principal Officers of our Union, our members may not be available to resume academic activities on the 28th of April 2024 if immediate action and the necessary processes are not immediately initiated regarding the demands made above.”
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