Barrister Joseph Odok, a lecturer in the department of Philosophy,
University of Calabar (Unical) has been suspended by the University
authority over his posts on the social media.
He was said to made some allegations against the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Zana Akpagu.
The suspension letter dated January 19th titled, ‘Suspension from
duty’ and signed by the registrar of the Institution, Moses Abang,
stated, “The attention of Vice Chancellor has been drawn to a plethora
of your posts on social media in which you make wild allegations against
his person and the office of the Vice Chancellor.
“It is indeed quite disheartening, unthinkable and unbelievable for
an Officer of your standing to make such wild, unsubstantiated and
sweeping allegations that you know are capable of inciting the public
against the Institution and its leadership.
“For the avoidance of doubt and for case of reference, some of your
allegations against the Professor Zana Akpagu, Vice Chancellor,
University of Calabar, (supposedly your boss) are listed below:
“Peter Agi was removed because he criticized Zana. SANU Chairman was
suspended because he fought against double deductions. I was given
unwarranted suspension because I advice Zana, now Associate Professor
Babi Mensah is being pursued because he contested elections against
Zana’s candidate.
“As for men like Zana, please, checks again despite your media hype
to cover his tracks, please, tell us what tracks. Tell him to pay
arrears of promotion and improve staff welfare instead of employing
outside due process. UNICAL weeps because of the greed and arrogance of
Zana.”
It was alleged that he made series of allegations against the Vice
Chancellor, including describing him as an “arrogant and greedy”
administrator.
In one of his posts, he alleged that the University lost
accreditation in Law but the VC deceived prospective candidates to apply
and he is now “running helter-skelter to JAMB to bribe them”.
He also accused the VC of sacking people who criticise him, while
recruiting people without following due process amongst others.
The University has, however, come out to deny all the allegations,
while advising the public to disregard the information being peddled by
Odok against the leadership of the institution.
According to Odok’s suspension letter, the University regretted that
it is “quite disheartening, unthinkable and unbelievable” for an officer
of Odok’s ranking to make such “wild, unsubstantiated and sweeping
allegations” capable of inciting the public against the institution and
its leadership.
The letter however added that Odok will be invited by the Senior
Staff Disciplinary Committee to defend his “spurious” allegations
against the Vice Chancellor and the University.
When contacted, the suspended lecturer told DAILY POST on phone on
Tuesday that he was in Abuja and he has not been served with any
suspension letter.
He said, “I have not been served any letter of suspension; I have
stories of intimidation by the University of Calabar that accumulated to
assassination attack which surrounded the Vice Chancellor.
“As it stands now, the VC has been invited by the Force Headquarters,
CID with regard to suspicious involvement of the VC over my
assassination attack.”
He alleged that immediately the VC got the letter of invitation from
the Force Headquarters, he instructed the Registrar to suspend him.
“The basis of my suspension was that I have been criticizing the VC on fact that is true.
“One of the facts was that the University is charging each of the
candidates acceptance fees of N25, 000. I said that it was extortion of
money from the students and that Federal Government University put
school fees of N45, 000 or N46, 000 but greedy VC use other means to
extort money from the students.
“Secondly, transcript fees, the transcript fees for the University of
Calabar is N20, 800 for each student who wants to do masters. For
instance, if you, as a student who want to do Masters in English in the
University of Calabar after graduating in the University, you are asked
to pay N20, 800.
“Why is it so?” He asked, “adding You don’t need to pay a kobo
because the Department can as well transmit your transcript to the
department. It should not have been a vehicle of extortion of money from
students.
“In faculty of Law, admission has not been granted, for reason being
that the faculty failed accreditation but the VC advertised for
admission and he was claiming to have bribed JAMB so that they could
offer students admission. Some of those things are the ones I have
criticized the VC and the University and because of that he instructed
the registrar to suspend me.
“I wrote an article on issue of truth where I asked the University to
look inward particularly to those who have contributed to the growth of
the University and give them preference when it comes to giving
honorary award.
“The University took offence because of the monetary gain in awarding
people. I was queried and I responded and I was queried the second time
and I responded too. All of a sudden they claimed that I have not
replied any of the queries but I submitted the acknowledgement letter
and they got angry and framed that I have acquired arms and ammunition.
“They petitioned against me to the Commissioner of Police and that I
incite the public against the University. The Deputy Security Officer of
the University of Calabar invited me to the University for us to use
internal mechanism to solve the problem.
“When I got there, I was in the waiting hands of the Police and I was
arrested and a search warrant was slammed on me and I was taken to my
house and a search was conducted, nothing was found but was detained for
two days on the instruction of the VC.
“Immediately after that, there was an assassination attack on me and
one of the suspects was given employment the following day after the
assassination attack as compensation. That is my story, I am in Abuja”,
he stated.