UNIZIK VC Saga: Odoh Drags FUGUS To Court Over Denial Of Professorship

The sacked 7th Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (UNIZIK), Professor Benard Odoh, has dragged the management of the Federal University, Gusau (FUGUS) in Zamfara State, to the National Industrial Court for allegedly denying him professorial rank and employment.

Shortly after Odoh’s sack by a presidential directive following the crisis surrounding his appointment as UNIZIK VC occasioned by allegations that he was not a Professor and that the processes that led to his appointment as the 7th substantive VC of UNIZIK was manipulated by the then Governing Council of the University led by Ambassador Greg Mbadiwe, both the VC of Federal University, Gusau and Registrar, Prof. Abubakar Mu’azu and Yakubu Anivbossa, respectively, had issued statements vehemently stating that Odoh was neither appointed a Professor nor employed by FUGUS.

Consequently, according to a statement issued on Wednesday, by his personal assistant on media and publicity, Mr. Charles Otu, Professor Odoh disclosed that he has instituted a legal action at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), against the management of Federal University Gusau in a suit with number NICN/ ABJ/434/ 2024.

Though no date has been fixed for the hearing of Odoh’s suit, the sacked UNIZIK VC has vowed that he will leave no stone unturned to seek legal redress in a court of competent jurisdiction “on the very weighty and damaging allegations against his person and unblemished records, accusing the management of being in league with politicians to nail and pitch him not just against the academic community, but the rest of Nigeria and the world.”

Odoh’s statement as issued by Otu read: “In the past seventy-two hours or more, the print, broadcast and social media outlets have been flooded with reports emanating from a press conference addressed by the Vice-Chancellor of Federal University, Gusau, Professor Muazu Abubakar, wherein he claimed that the embattled Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Professor Benard Odoh, was never in the employment of the university and neither was he a tenured professor at the institution.”