Iyayi: ASUU bans procession for late leader

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has banned a faction of the union at the University of Ilorin, led by Professor Wahab Egbewole, from going ahead with its planned procession for the late Prof. Festus Iyayi.

The union said it was still mourning Iyayi, who died when a bus conveying some ASUU leaders was involved in an accident with a vehicle in the convoy of Kogi State Governor Idris Wada in Lokoja last week.

ASUU said it had not approved any procession for any of its branches. It also described the planned procession in Ilorin as hypocritical.

In a release issued in Ibadan on Tuesday and signed by the Zonal Coordinators of Ilorin and Ibadan zones, Dr. Ayan Adeleke and Dr. Adesola Nasir respectively, titled “Do not desecrate the memory of our late president,” ASUU said the national leadership of the union would not permit any attempt by any group in UNILORIN to desecrate the memory of its late leader.

“The attention of the union has been drawn to attempts by a group led by Prof. Wahab Egbewole of the University of Ilorin to desecrate the memory of the late former President of our union by issuing a notice of a so-called “procession” for him in the University of Ilorin,” the statement read in part.

It added that the factional leader had been expelled from the union and its activities.

The coordinators said Iyayi had during his lifetime spoken against the inhuman and degrading treatment being meted out to genuine members of the union in Ilorin, stressing that it would be wrong for a group to attempt to make publicity gains from his death.

They said, “Our late president, who in the past had suffered the same kind of degrading and inhuman treatment being meted out to genuine ASUU representatives in the University of Ilorin, constantly, spoke against the charlatanism of those who are illegally parading themselves as ASUU officials in the branch.

“Indeed, Iyayi was against everything that Egbewole and his group stand for in relation to ASUU. It is therefore the height of provocation and insensitivity for the group to seek to make publicity gains out of the death of our late former president.”