According to a presentation by the Registrar of the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, during the 2023 policy meeting, the top 10 institutions were recognised due to the attraction of high number of applicants during the 2023 UTME application period.

In the list, the University of Ilorin was first, followed by the University of Lagos in second place, Lagos State University in third place,Federal University, Oye-Ekiti in fourth place.

Others in the top 10 are University of Benin, University of Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nnamdi Azikwe University, Nigerian Defence Academy and the University of Ibadan.

In a condolence message to the bereaved signed by the UNILAG Principal Assistant Registrar, Communication Unit, Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, the institution expressed sadness over the incident, stating that the police are investigating the case.

The release read, “It was with heavy heart, that the Management of the University of Lagos, received the sad news of the death of Mr Al Ameen Adekunle Agboola, a 200-level student of the Department of Metallurgical and Material Engineering, Faculty of Engineering who died outside the University premises on Saturday, June 3, 2023.

“The unfortunate incident surrounding his death is being investigated by the Nigerian Police Force, with the full cooperation of the University.

“The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade T. Ogunsola, OON, on behalf of the entire University community, commiserates with the family of Mr Agboola, and prays that God grants the bereaved family the strength and fortitude to bear the irreplaceable loss.”

The PUNCH had reported on Tuesday that the deceased and his colleague identified simply as Opeyemi boarded a shuttle bus from Yaba to UNILAG and while in the vehicle, a man, who was hanging at the back of the bus, dispossessed Opeyemi of her iPhone 7 plus.

Aggrieved by the development, Opeyemi raised the alarm and Adekunle, in a desperate attempt to retrieve the phone from the robber who jumped down from the bus and fled, chased after him.

Upon observing that Adekunle was closing in on the suspect, it was learnt that one of the hoodlums suspected to be working with the fleeing suspect came out of nowhere and shot the 23-year-old.

This was contained in a press statement titled ‘2020/2021 post-UTME: notice of postponement’  posted on its website on Thursday.

The university management earlier announced that the screening would hold between Monday, November 30, and Saturday, December 12, 2020.

The statement read: “The University wishes to inform all prospective candidates of the 2020/2021 Post-UTME Screening exercise earlier slated for Monday, November 30 to Saturday, December 12, 2020, that the screening has been postponed.

“New dates will be communicated as soon as possible. Any inconvenience occasioned by

this postponement is highly regretted.”

In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 which includes more than 1,500 universities across 93 countries and regions (making it the largest and most diverse university rankings to date), University of Ibadan (UI) took the number one spot in Nigeria and also ranked at number 401–500 in the world.

Lagos State University (LASU) took the second place and the University of Lagos (UNILAG) occupied the third position at number 501-600 and 601-800 respectively.

The ranking also placed Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State (801-1000) as the best private university and 4th on the national ranking. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1000+) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OUA) Ile-Ife (1001+) occupied the 5th and 6th position positions.

In the suit, marked NICN/LA/283/2020, the UNILAG Senate had kicked against Ogundipe’s sacking by the university’s Governing Council and his replacement with Prof. Theophilus Soyombo, as acting VC.

The defendants in the suit were the varsity’s Governing Council, it’s now suspended Pro-Chancellor, Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN), the Registrar, Mr. Oladejo Azeez, Soyomo and Ogundipe.

The Senate had sought a court declaration that Ogundipe’s purported removal by the Governing Council vide an August 12, 2020 letter, was not procedural and was null and void.

The Senate had also prayed the court to restrain Soyombo from parading himself as UNILAG acting VC.

However, the Senate, through its counsel, Prof. Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), filed an application on Monday to discontinue the suit.

Osipitan told our correspondent that the decision to withdraw the suit followed the latest developments.

The President had on Friday suspended both Babalakin and Ogundipe and reversed Soyombo’s appointment as acting VC.

The varsity Senate on Monday also elected Prof. Folasade Ogunsola as acting VC.

Professor Folasade Ogunsola emerged the acting VC after securing the highest number of votes in the election held by members of the University of Lagos Senate to choose an acting Vice-Chancellor.

She was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Development Services at UNILAG before her emergence.

She vied for the position alongside another Deputy Vice-Chancellors from Management Services.

Out of the 167 senate members who voted at the exercise, 135 voted for DVC Development Services while DVC Management Services got 31 votes, one voided vote was recorded.

The Senate Emergency Committee Chairman, Professor Chioma Agomo who spoke after the election said due process was followed in electing the new acting VC as directed by the Federal Government.

This election follows the Federal Government’s directive that the University’s Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Wale Babalakin, and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, recuse themselves from official duties, pending the outcome of the panel set up by President Muhammadu Buhari.

FG had also asked UNILAG Senate to reconvene to appoint an acting VC.

According to a Wiki citation, Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola was born in 1958. She is a professor of medical microbiology who specialises in disease control, particularly HIV/AIDS.

Ogunsola was also an ex-provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, and is reputed as being the first woman to occupy the position.

She became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) of the institution in 2017.

“Her research areas have been centered on the regulation and management of viral diseases, particularly HIV.

“She is the principal investigator at AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at the University of Lagos.

“She has also been the chairman of the Infection Control Committee of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Additionally, she is the chairman of the National Association of Colleges of Medicine in Nigeria.

“In 2018, she expressed concern on disease prevention and control in Nigeria. She identified poor hygiene and overuse of antibiotics as practices that foster antimicrobial-drug resistance.

“Providing a solution, she maintained that sustained Infection Prevention and Control infrastructure and programmes should be built around a set of core components which include guidelines, training, surveillance, multimodal strategies for implementing IPC, monitoring and evaluation among others,” the citation added.

Professor Ogundipe who was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of the University in November 2017, was removed from office at a meeting of the governing council of the university, held at the National Universities Commission (NUC) in Abuja, on Wednesday, August 12.

Speaking to newsmen at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, on Friday, August 14, Babalakin said the “vocal minority” opposed to Ogundipe’s removal benefitted from the alleged corruption under him.

He said “The confusion is that most people don’t how governing council operates. There was full compliance of the law in the removal of Prof Ogundipe. The issue has been lingering on for a long time. Series of attempt was made to reconcile but the VC was not forthcoming… a focal minority, who are benefiting from the corruption in UNILAG which has become cultural. Due process was followed in the removal of Ogundipe. After the council committee indicted the VC, he wrote his defence in May and spoke for one hour. His sack was done in accordance with UNILAG law. The votes were counted with each council members’ comments. Everyone voted, they didn’t just vote but they made comments and I read out all the comments. Go and read the law, what the law said is that when a Vice-Chancellor is removed and you have a complaint, you will write an appeal to the visitor. He cannot on his own, declare that he has not been removed as Ogundipe has done. He cannot on his own confront his employers. In law, he has resigned because if you challenge your employer and you are still in his employment, you have actually left. The weakness of Ogundipe is that his legal advisers have not done a very thorough job. There is no stalemate and there is no chaos in the university because the law would take its course. It is not in the place of the removed VC to say he has not been removed. He cannot be a judge in his own court. He cannot on his own declaration that he has not been removed. He cannot on his own decision to confront his employer. Professor Ogundipe has been looting the university and looting it recklessly, that’s the plain truth that we should not hide. There is misappropriation and there is direct looting of the university. All attempts were made to put an end to this. The former VC spent N49 million renovating his house. Under the process, this has to be done with approval from the council, he sought no approval. To cover-up, he gave the bursar N41 million to renovate his official residence. The official residence of the bursar can be built for N41 million from scratch, this was what was spent on renovation.”

While calling on the Governing Council of UNILAG to follow due process in the removal, the organisation said the embattled Ogundipe should be given the opportunity to defend himself.

The committee said the law establishing universities gives the GC the power to hire and fire a Vice Chancellor but not in an arbitrary process.

The UNILAG GC had in a statement by its Registrar and Secretary, Oladejo Azeez entitled: “Notice to the general public on the removal of the Vice Chancellor of UNILAG”, said he was sacked “based on the investigation of serious acts of wrongdoing, gross misconduct, financial recklessness and abuse of office.”

But the Secretary-General of CVCUN, Prof. Yakubu Aboki Ochefu, told journalists in Abuja on Friday that the abrupt sacking of Ogundipe did not follow due process.

Speaking on the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor, the CVC Secretary-General, said the appointment will pose another problem to the university.

He explained that the extant laws of the University states that if a Vice-Chancellor is removed, one of the deputies should be appointed to act.

The CVCUN scribe said, “The council has gone ahead to announce a new VC; the extant laws state that one of his Deputies should be appointed to act, UNILAG has three Deputy Vice-Chancellors, none of them was appointed as the acting VC and somebody else entirely was appointed.

“This is going to pose another problem because the Senate will not allow such a person to chair their meeting because they don’t know him within the context of laws establishing Universities.”

On the GC’s position and the Vice Chancellor’s claims, Ocheku said the situation presently favoured the University Senate which is seeking procedural process.

“It is a funny situation, the VC is saying, ‘yes you have the power to remove me, but you have to do it properly; as far as I am concern as you have not remove me’, the GC is saying, ‘we have removed you.”

Ochefu decried the situation describing it as unhealthy for a University of such calibre or any other University in Nigeria.

Academic and non-academic staff of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, made this call, stating that the Chairman of the Council, Dr Wale Babalakin, SAN, is acting contrary to the dictates of his office and working against the progress of the citadel of learning.

This follows the removal of the institute’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe and appointment of a new acting VC, Prof Omololu Soyombo.

The workers, speaking through Dr. Dele Ashiru of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), under the aegis of the Joint Staff Union, JSU, made this demand at a Congress they held on the campus on Thursday, August 13.

The workers also said that there was no room for any surrogate acting Vice-Chancellor in the institution.

The worker unions are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT.

The workers said the bad precedence that the Council tried to set should not be allowed to remain and that the country was not the Banana Republic.

The Senate also kicked against the removal of Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as Vice-Chancellor of the institution by the Governing Council.

Recall that Wale Babalakin, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, announced their decision-making on Wednesday in Abuja to remove Ogundipe as VC of UNILAG, accusing him of gross misconduct and acts of corruption.

According to reports, a meeting was held on Thursday by 88 members and anchored by Prof Chioma Ago, a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, the institution’s Senate said the removal of Ogundipe was against UNILAG’s regulation, adding that the Council removed Ogundipe without giving him the opportunity to defend himself.

“Part of the condition for the removal of a Vice Chancellor is that a joint committee of the Senate and Governing Council must sit and investigate with three representatives from each side but the Senate was never represented, the Senate was never consulted, the Senate never knew the allegations against their member”.

“The removal of Prof Ogundipe did not follow the Act establishing the university. He was not given fair hearing and the opportunity to defend himself”.

“The Senate therefore rejects the removal of Prof Ogundipe and the appointment of an Acting VC,” a member, who attended the meeting, told SaharaReporters”.