Babalakin and Ogundipe are both fighting for their interest, not us – UNILAG Students

The Coalition Of University of Lagos Student Unionists has said that the ongoing disagreement between the sacked Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, and thePro-Chancellor and Chairman of  Council, Dr Wale Babalakin, is neither in the interest of students nor staff members of the institution.

COULSU in a statement by its Chairman, Adedeji Olayinka, said students should avoid   defending or taking sides with any of the two wings of the university’s administration but rather call for a probe into the finances of the institution.

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The statement reads, “It should be noted that the present fracas between the wing of the Babalakin-led Council and the wing of the embattled Vice Chancellor is not in the general interest of students and staffs of the University of Lagos. This is because the real fight between the two wings which led to the removal of the Vice Chancellor is about who controls the looted funds of the university.

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“While the embattled Vice Chancellor is extremely corrupt and has looted the university resources, we observed that Babalakin who is the prosecutor lacks sincerity and the prosecution is not to make the University of Lagos a better institution as posited by the council but rather to make Babalakin get  substantial parts of the university resources to himself and his cohorts in the council.

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“That the endemic corruption in the system of University of Lagos has caused the generality of students a serious damage ranging from poor living conditions in the hostels to poor learning conditions in the lecture rooms. That under the leadership of the embattled Vice Chancellor, students of the university suffered serious extortion at all levels among which include the illegal GST fee, drug test fee for new students, outrageous faculty and departmental registration fee for new students, mandatory textbook and laboratory manual fee amongst others.

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“That under the leadership of the embattled Vice Chancellor, despite collecting N25,500 accommodation fee per space for 8500 spaces which amounts to N216,750,000 annually and a total of N650,250,000 for (2017/2018, 2018/2019, 2019/2020 academic sessions), the university management failed to upgrade facilities in the hostels. Thus, the hostels are in despicable state with bedbug infestation, poor toilet facilities, poor water supply and other decadence. The DSS cells are much more conducive than the hostels in the university.”