Delta groups battle over Vice-Chancellor position
Posted by admin | 10 years ago | 2,240 times
The position of the Vice-Chancellorship (VC) of Delta State University, Abraka, has got the daggers of two Urhobo groups drawing at each other’s throat.
The two groups – Coalition of Urhobo Youth Organization (CUYO) and Urhobo Progressive and Unified Front (UPUF) – are battling to have their candidate take over from the incumbent VC, Prof Eric Arubaye after his tenure. This is even after the August 8, 2014 deadline for submission of applications.
While CUYO is planning a protest over an alleged zoning of the position of the Vice Chancellor of DELSU to Delta South Senatorial district, UPUF condemned the action, disassociated themselves from the move. They insisted that CUYO do not have the blessing of Urhobo youths and Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU), to speak on their behalf.
In a release signed by Edirin ErerevwoErerevwo, Okpako Eshareve and two others on behalf of UPUF, the group said CUYO does not know the working of a university let alone a University Council. The group added that members of the Governing Council of the institution were men of integrity who would get the best VC for the institution.
UPUF noted that the University is not for the Urhobo alone despite that the Urhobo people have dominated the reign of the university since its inception in1992, having occupied the position of the VC for 19 years out of the 22 years of its existence.
It argued that the State belongs to all Deltans and also noted that the people were interrelated. "Due process has been set in motion by the University Council and there is no need for CUYO to cry wolf where there is none. CUYO should desist from the wrong part, retrace their footsteps owing to the fact that 80 per cent of DELSU Council members are Urhobos and that four out of the five selection committee members are Urhobos and that if a person from Delta North or South senatorial district is found competent he/she should not be dropped for an incompetent Urhobo person", UPUF added.
The group alleged that CUYO is being sponsored by incompetent applicants whose opinion do not represent the entire Urhobo youth. It cited examples of situations where tribe did not supercede merit. "The Provost of the College of Education, Warri, Prof Igho Ojo is an Urhobo man and there for seven years while the provost before him was an Urhobo. The present Provost of same College in Agbor is an Urhobo woman. During the convocation of the College in Agbor, this year Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan expressed his reservation of agitation of indigenes heading institution in their domains’’ UPUF
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