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…as parliament suspends Omotayo Akande over UN trip
Olanrewaju Oyedeji,Ile-Ife
In a move that is almost without parallel since its inception, the Obafemi Awolowo University Students Union Government, SUG, now has a female president. This is coming on the heels of the move by the parliament of the union, otherwise called the Students Representative Council (SRC), to suspend the union president, Mr Omotayo Akande, aka TY on grounds of constitutional misconduct.
In an unanimous decision of the house reached at the last parliamentary sitting, the president was found guilty of writing to the university management to sponsor him for a trip to the United nations campus summit. In the said request, Akande had pleaded with the OAU management to sponsor him to the UN summit, and the money requested by the union President amounted to N600, 000.
The specific grounds of misconduct being raised by the parliament include the facts that the letter written to the management of the university was without the consent of other executives and also that the mere act of writing to the management to seek pecuniary benefits was synonymous with selling out the union given the SUG’s long-standing commitment to sustaining any kind of unholy relationship with the university which they insist is most unwelcome
According to a member of the house, Hon. Jas, the President had refused to carry along other executives and as such had betrayed the trust that OAU students had reposed in him.
With the latest development, the vice-President, Oprah becomes the first ever female President of the OAU SUG thereby making history and she will be acting President for one month in the first instance.
Investigations however revealed that the Union has long been divided into factions with the now suspended president being accused of polarizing the union and side-lining the Vice-President in the running of the affairs of the student body.
The new development has however also led to divisions amongst students as factions loyal to the suspended President have condemned the parliamentary decision calling it a sham and only a ruse to carry out the long premeditated plot to remove Omotayo Akande which has now been carried out most unjustly. They have therefore promised to fight the parliamentary decision saying it cannot stand.
On their part however, students loyal to the VP (now acting President) and who are mostly law students have threatened to stop any move to declare null and void the decision of the parliament saying Omotayo Akande erred by requesting management support for his purported UN trip. ‘Is he trying to sell our union? one of them quipped.
Efforts to speak with the Students’ Union PRO, Ojedokun Immanuel also known as Immanuel Kant as at the time of filing this report proved abortive as his phone failed to connect and he was equally not in his office at the students’ union building when our correspondent called.
Pix: Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola
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