…My reappointment followed due process- Prof. Fasakin
By Abdulrasheed Akogun
The Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Ile-oluji, Ondo State, Prof. Emmanuel Adedayo Fasakin has denied allegations of highhandedness in the school’s administration and mismanagement of TETFUND, describing the allegations as that of an embittered dismissed staff of the institution which are baseless.
It would be recalled an online medium (not Fresh Insight) had few days ago published a petition written by one Mr. Oloko Oladele, alleged the Rector of maladministration, fraudulent practices and violation of the Federal Polytechnic Act, 2019, signed into law by the President.
The petition partly reads “On 6th December, 2019, the management and governing council made a fraudulent internet advertisement for the position of the three principal officers.
“Due process was not followed under the following categories; it was well stated in the Federal Polytechnic Act 2019 that all principal officers appointments should be from the polytechnic section BUT the fraudulent internet advertisement published by the Federal Polytechnic Ile-Oluji, Ondo State extended it to other tertiary institutions.
“The laid down rules on methods and procedures of the appointment of principal officers were violated under the following categories; no joint council was formed in the process of selecting the three principal officers in March 2020. The academic board was not involved in the selecting of the three principal officers on March 2020” the petition reads
However speaking with Fresh Insight via a telephone interview, the Prof. Fashakin denied all the allegations, stressing that the petitioner was not a staff of the institution as alleged.
Fashakin said “The petitioner under reference was dismissed from the services of the polytechnic less than 6months into his appointment for gross misconduct in 2018 and ever since then he has become an habitual blackmailer.
“He was a Lecturer 1 and not Chief Lecturer when he was dismissed. There is a pending case involving petitioner and the Polytechnic at the Industrial Arbitration Court, Akure.
“Concerning the renewal of my tenure, I have a letter to that effect since 2018 signed by the school authority. I am not affected by the new edit signed into law in July 2019. My tenure will lapse in 2023. For the other principal officers, that is the Registrar, Bursar and the Librarian, the new law affected them and their appointment actually ended in March 2020.
“We normally place our adverts for positions 6 months before expiration of their tenure which we did by advertising in two national newspapers and online to which people responded. We had interviews and there was a long list thereafter, we had a short list of persons looking for the posts.
” We have guidelines for the process, which we followed. Four members of the council, three from the congregation the other two who are supposed to be chief lecturers but we had no chief lecturers because the school is just 5years old so we had other senior lecturers instead as well as representatives from the Ministry.
“So there was no hide and seek. Thereafter, those interviewed were recommended to the council who approved the recommendation of those qualified. No other position is opened to persons from a university except directors, I can say I am the last set of people coming into a polytechnic from a university but the new law does not affect the principal officers.
On allegations of embezzlement of TETFUND grants he said ” TETFUND is a body funding us for capital projects. It releases money in tranches, three tranches and pay workers according to evaluation based on what they see on ground. Thank God, we have commissioned and the TETFUND representatives were there. There were auditors, engineers etc so we have nothing to hide” he added.
