Confusion as VC, provost claim head of Ondo varsity

The academic community of the Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo is in a dilemma over who now heads the institution between Prof. Richard King and Prof. Olukoya Ogen.

King was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the institution in May, 2015, when the College of Education was upgraded to a university while Ogen was still the provost of the college.

It was gathered that confusion set in following the purported reversal of the status of the school to that of a college of education and Ogen, who had earlier vacated the position following the upgrade of the institution, was asked to resume as the provost.

A recent media report had indicated that all the colleges of education upgraded to universities by the Jonathan administration had been reversed to their former status by Buhari.

Other affected colleges of education include the Federal College of Education, Zaria, Kaduna State; Federal College of Education, Kano and the Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo State.

To this end, a source said letters were sent to all the ‘sacked’ provosts of the affected institutions to return to their duty posts.

Ogen was said to have also received the letter of resumption which, according to a source, was dated August 19.

However, a reliable source on the campus disclosed that King, on Monday, issued a circular to all the staff of AUE that he remained the head of the institution despite the fact that the Federal Government had issued a letter of resumption to Ogen as the provost of the college.

According to the source, the memo stated that King claimed that he had not received any memo from the Federal Government directing him to leave as the vice- chancellor.

Meanwhile, a member of the management staff, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, confirmed the development and said the staff were confused over who to obey.

According to him, there has not been any official announcement from the government and the school also has not received any circular to that effect.

When contacted on telephone, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Moses Akinfolarin, declined to comment, saying, “ I have no comment on it.”