I was not recruited by anybody to rig Osun state gubernatorial election - UI VC
The Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Professor Isaac Folorunso Adewole, has flayed rumours in the cyberspace about his involvement in recruiting pliable machineries to rig today's gubernatorial election, in favour of the PDP governorship candidate, describing the report as not only misleading, untrue but laughable.
In a statement by the University's Director of Public Communication, Mr. Olatunji Oladejo, the VC stressed that his personality is not in any way attached to such practice.
Professor Adewole said he got wind of the rumour on Thursday night, in a post by a blogger insinuating that he had been recruited "to perfect the rigging deal."
The VC said: "I am not attached to this ocassion. It is jaundiced journalism. I got it last night as was published by a blogger. The post suggested that I was in Abuja for over a week, but, surprisingly, I never left Ibadan. Immediately, I got the information, I burst into an uncontrollable laughter, and thought it was really harmful to my personality.
The post read in part: "To perfect the rigging deal, iReports-ng.com gathered that the university don has been in Abuja for the past week to get ‘proper briefing.’ Part of the briefing already given Prof Adewole in Abuja was to recruit about 300 pliable staff of UI as collation officers. Already, 11 local government areas of Osun have been listed in a rigging plan document prepared by the PDP strategy team where voting figures will be inflated in favour of the party’s governorship candidate."
Prof. Adewole explained that it was the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Atahiru Jega, who requested for senior staff (professors and others) of the University to assist in monitoring and collation of election results of the gubernatorial election in Osun state.
The VC's words: "Because of the closeness of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with the institution, a request was made to recruit some senior staff of the University of Ibadan, in which some of them are key members of ASUU, to help monitor and collate the results of the election in Osun state. So, I don't know why this is going beyond a matter of understanding. I had not even showed my face."
The VC noted that the INEC’s request was granted in good faith to ensure free, fair and credible election as the senior University's staff (professors and others) are regarded as the most experienced and highly independent ones.
Prof. Adewole urged journalists, bloggers and other users of social media to always cross-check and properly scrutinize any information they provide for the public because wrong information has the tendency of causing harm and injuring relationships.
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OLATUNJI M.OLADEJO,JP, MNIPR
DIRECTOR,DIRECTORATE OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION,
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, IBADAN
08077284442, 08023896412
Email:oladejo65@gmail.com, oladejotunji@gmail.com,dir_pubcom@mail.ui.edu.ng
om.oladejo@ui.edu.ng
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