Rotimi Agboluaje,Ibadan
The Chairman Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) University of Ibadan chapter, Dr. Deji Omole has denied issuing any press release to any media house on increment of fees in 38 universities in Nigeria.
Dr. Omole described newspaper attribution of the report to ASUU as “mischievous and devilish.”
Dr Omole denied even being in Abuja and speaking with any medium let alone issue any release concerning fees jack-up in varsities.
Omole said ASUU is a well-coordinated union and places factual data in public domain in an incontrovertible manner and called on the Director General of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), which was quoted by dailies as the source of the news to investigate the matter and apply sanctions.
He said: “I need to place it on record that I was never in Abuja nor issued any press release to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) or any other news medium in Abuja as falsely presented to the public.
“Therefore, I do not know the sources of the figures quoted in the report. ASUU is a well-coordinated union who will carry out incontrovertible research and present this to the public.
“It is the duty of journalists to carry out investigation and if you have done that why can’t you state that to the public? Why must you link it to ASUU that never spoke to you? Is it because NAN is a federal institution and does want government to sanction them for stating the obvious?
“This is bad journalism practice. For me, my position remains that the government has not lived up to the electioneering campaigns of funding public education. We shall continue to fight for the funding of public education and resist any attempt to deny children of the poor masses public education”.
