ASUU-LASU asks VC to probe bribery allegation against librarian

The Lagos State University (LASU) chapter of the Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) has asked Olanrewaju Fagbohun, vice chancellor (VC) of the institution, to investigate the bribery allegation against Adebambo Oduwole, LASU librarian.

In a letter by Tony Dansu and Adeolu Oyekan, secretary and assistant secretary of the union, ASUU-LASU said it is in possession of audio conversations to back up the claim.

According to the letter, Oduwole was heard asking a non-academic staff at the College of Medicine to get him a document relating to the office Babatunde Solagberu, provost of the college.

Oduwole was said to have promised the staff a bribe of N25,000 and a “favourable” job placement if the plan was successfully executed.

The union said there was a bank transaction receipt to show that Oduwole made a payment of N10,000 to the college staff.

“Our great Union ASUU-LASU, deems it fit to write you on the need to investigate the bribery allegation against the University Librarian, in the person of Dr. Adebambo Oduwole,” the letter read.

“As you may be aware, the University community is awash with some audio conversations that allegedly took place between the Librarian, Dr. Adebambo Oduwole, and a non-academic staff at the College of Medicine, wherein the latter was promised a sum of N25,000 (twenty-five thousand naira only), and favourable job placement through an advert by the University Administration, should he succeed in getting a particular document relating to the office of the Provost.

“In the audio recording, an initial sum of N10,000 (ten thousand naira) was promised. There is a bank transaction receipt that suggests very strongly that Dr. Adebambo Oduwole made the graft payment as promised.”

The union said it was aware that Solagberu had months earlier, brought the case to the attention of Fagbohun.

Describing the audio clips as “damaging and embarrassing”, the union asked the VC not to allow the issue be swept under the carpet.

It said the alleged refusal of the university management to set up an investigating panel fuels insinuations that the university “is looking for a safe exit for the Librarian” whose tenure will reportedly lapse on May 2.

“We are aware that Professor Babatunde Solagberu, in his capacity as Provost of the College of Medicine, brought this issue to your notice, several months ago,” the letter read.

“These audio clips are damaging and embarrassing to the image of Lagos State University as they portray the institution as a place where bribery is institutionalised.

“While we believe that the Librarian is innocent until proven otherwise, we are equally convinced that it is not in the interest of justice, transparency and accountability that the issue be swept under the carpet.

“By refusing to set up a panel to investigate the matter, the University Administration unwittingly fuels insinuations going on in the University that it is looking for a safe exit for the Librarian, whose tenure expires on the 2nd of May, 2018, more so, as the inducement was purportedly offered on behalf of the University Administration to help it build a case against Prof. Solagberu as the Provost of the College of Medicine.

“Without doing so, it erodes its own powers of invoking disciplinary measures against any member of staff in the future, since the impression gets created that the University laws and regulations apply differently to categories of staff, depending on whether they belong to the inner caucus of the Administration, outside or even against it.

“It is therefore on the basis of the need for us to avoid a slide into the days of anarchy from which the University is struggling to emerge, that ASUU-LASU requests that the bribery allegation against the University Librarian be investigated immediately.”

Efforts by TheCable to reach Oduwole to react to the allegation proved abortive, as he neither picked his phone calls nor replied to the text message sent to him.