The embattled and recently dismissed vice-chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka Professor Benard Odoh has filed a lawsuit against the Federal University, Gusau (FUGUS) over alleged denial of his professorial appointment and employment status.
According to a statement by his personal assistant on media and publicity Charles Otu, the lawsuit, with case number NICN/ABJ/434/2024, was filed at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.
Although a hearing date has yet to be scheduled, Otu emphasised that Odoh is determined to pursue justice, stating that he will leave no stone unturned in addressing what he described as “very weighty and damaging allegations” against his character and previously unblemished record.
The statement read partly: “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.
“He also went further to allege that, ‘all documents pertaining to Odoh’s claims were fraudulently obtained through administrative fraud working in cahoots with the Registrar and the former Vice-Chancellor of the University.’
“In other words, one strongly suspects that those desperate to rid Odoh out of office and perhaps further cause him public shame, ridicule and embarrassment are now even more desperate to damage and utterly destroy his academic, social and political reputations in what obviously could be understood as a deliberately orchestrated and mafiaso media trial, similar to what happened to the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, who has now been eventually washed clean by the court.”
