A group, the Concerned Islamic Rights Group, has alleged the outgoing Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Idowu Olayinka, of promoting ethnicity and religion in the selection of the next Vice-Chancellor of the institution.
OYOINSIGHT.COM reported that the tenure of Olayinka as the Vice-Chancellor of the institution will lapse on the 30th of November and a new Don is expected to succeed him immediately.
The Concerned Islamic Rights Group, in a statement made available to the public, also alleged that Olayinka is exploiting the E-voting strategy to garner advantage for his preferred candidate, the current Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration.
Explaining how the process is being manipulated, the group wrote, “There was an election to select congregation representatives at Senate and the results were quite astonishing. Out of a list of 152, only 2 are Muslims. The plan to oppress Muslims and prevent any of the Muslim candidates from occupying the VC seat was perfected through the e-voting manipulation to produce a pre-determined result.
“The manipulated and predetermined e-voting result in the university has clandestinely eliminated Muslims from the highest academic body where important decisions are taken.
“We think and believe that this should interest all lovers of justice and equal rights. This was never the case before and has never been so in the University of Ibadan, but the current powers that be have vowed to suppress Islam and Muslims. This has the potential for throwing up inter religious crises which had long been suppressed in the university.”
The group also stated that majority of the supporters of the outgoing VC in 2015 were Muslims who supported him at the expense of a strong Muslim contender noting that “the ongoing process in UI has been conceived to favor a particular candidate.”
“It is on record that most of the supporters of the outgoing VC in 2015 were Muslims. They supported him even against a strong Muslim contender. Sadly however, the ongoing process in UI has been conceived to favor a particular candidate.”
They, then, called on the Federal Government to intervene now as a matter of urgency before crises break out.
“The congregation election should be investigated and set aside. The VC should be prevented from using the electronic voting for the remaining election because it is no longer trustworthy and credible,” they added.
