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NEPOTISM ALLEGATION TRAILS UNIOSUN VC’S APPOINTMENT

Fresh crisis appears to be brewing following the appointment of Prof. Labode Popoola as the Vice-Chancellor of the Osun State University by the Visitor to the university, Governor Rauf Aregbesola.

The governor had, on Friday, announced the appointment of Popoola in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon.

The governor stated that the approval followed the recommendation of the Governing Council of UNIOSUN, under the chairmanship of Mallam Yusuf Ali, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

But one of the candidates, who applied for the job, Prof. Andrew Akinmoladun, while speaking on the telephone with our correspondent in Osogbo on Sunday, faulted the selection process, saying it was pre-arranged to favour Popoola.

Akinmoladun said the selection board, which interviewed candidates for the position, refused to interview him because they had skewed the process to favour Popoola, who, he claimed, was their anointed candidate.

The aggrieved don alleged that the process was hurriedly done by the council just to ensure that the anointed candidate was appointed.

Akinmoladun, a founding academic member of UNIOSUN, who left the institution in 2012 for Bronx Community College of the City University of New York, United States, said he had petitioned Aregbesola over what he described as an injustice.

He stated that he had instituted a suit to seek redress.

The don added, “Suffice it to say that some candidates for the position were contacted and interviewed on Wednesday, November 2, 2016, and other candidates were also contacted to appear for interview on Thursday, November 3, 2016.

“Surprisingly, I was never contacted for the two scheduled dates. I want to strongly state that the conduct and selection process so far are characterised by irregularities and discrepancies.

“Due process was never followed in the conduct and selection process but everything was selfishly and hurriedly done just to pick and announce an already pencilled-down candidate.”

Aregbesola’s spokesman, Okanlawon, did not return calls to his telephone by our correspondent on Sunday.

He had also yet to respond to the text message sent to him to find out if his principal had recieved Akinmoladun’s petition and the action to be taken on it.

But the Chairman of Council of UNIOSUN, Ali, when contacted on the telephone, said Akinmoladun was not shortlisted for the interview because he did not meet the major criteria for the position.

He explained that it was advertised that candidates for the position must have been appointed a professor for at least 10 years as of October, 2015, the closing date for the submission of applications.

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