Angered by what it described as sundry offences and alleged gross misconduct by some of the lecturers, the management of the Delta State University (DELSU) has dismissed two of its lecturers in the Department of Economics, and sent a professor in the same department on compulsory retirement.
Three other lecturers of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension are also in trouble over alleged sex-for-marks, a demand the university management said can never be accepted or allowed to thrive in the institution.
In a statement signed by the Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Victor Peretemode in Asaba, said the three lecturers are stagnated for three years while the professor would be retired from the university system next week.
The names of the affected lecturers were withheld in the release, but the Vice Chancellor said the decision to ensure the affected lecturers are dealt with accordingly, was reached at the 106th meeting of the Governing Council of the university after the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee (SSDC) which carried out an investigation on acts of misconduct levelled against the lecturers, submitted its findings and recommendations to the Governing Council.
It was gathered that following the decision of the university management to lay off the affected lecturers, especially the three affected lecturers stagnated for three years, there is palpable tension and fear of the unknown in the university community as alleged efforts by them to get the State governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa to intervene, had been unsuccessful.
A staff of the university, who spoke to newsmen on condition of anonymity, said, “the affected lecturers, many of them are in the department of Animal and Environmental Biology, While another senior lecturer whose name did not appear with others, was warned for negligence of duty and told to strictly abide by the rules and regulations of the university as they relate to the conduct of the examination. All the information was also published in the school bulletin, there is serious tension and lobby to come back at all costs”.
Professor Peretemode disclosed that no fewer than 10 lecturers and non academic staff have been sacked in the last few months for gross misconduct and sundry offences, stressing that the university’s management has zero tolerance for offences committed by any staff .
