..as Court discontinues trials
The legal battle that lingered between the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina and the Nigerian Police was on Monday, June 20, 2022, laid to rest as the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos State, discontinued its trials following the joint decision of the two parties to settle out of court.
A press release yesterday by the special Adviser on Media to the VC,Wole Balogun explained that Prof.Fasina had filed a suit last year, urging the Federal High Court, Lagos division to protect his fundermental human rights against an alleged abuse by the officials of the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) who invaded the premises of FUOYE last year’s June.
The SFU officials had invaded the university with an alleged plot to arrest the VC on trumped up allegations without recourse to due process and the rule of law.
Following this alleged breach, Prof. Fasina sued the Nigeria police for allegedly tramping on his fundermental human rights by attempting to illegally and forcefully arrest him in his office on the premises of the University in Oye-Ekiti, Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State on 17th June, 2021.
However, their alleged invasion of the university caused a stir as members of the University community believed that there were more to the issue than meet the eye.
While the VC accused the SFU operatives of attempt to illegally arrest and/or kidnap him, the officials denied the claim, insisting that they merely wanted to serve the University’s Chief Executive a letter of invitation for questioning over spurious allegations against him.
Meanwhile, the VC, had, through his legal counsel, Mr. Ebun Olu- Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), replied to the SFU, saying that the allegations of criminal acts of money laundering, double salaries, and official misconduct as leveled against the VC by a faceless group, Global Anti-Corruption Initiatives, who were believed to be executing the biddings of their paymaster, were untrue, baseless, and unfounded and nothing more than trumped up charges to defame and assassinate the character of the VC.
During the hearing of the case on Monday, Adegboruwa, who was represented by a legal officer from his Chambers, informed Justice Aneke of the Federal High Court that sequel to the joint decision of his client, Prof. Fasina, and the Nigerian Police to settle out of court, an application for discontinuation of the case, dated and filed on May 11, 2022, was being formally tendered. He said:”
We are pleased to inform the court that parties have settled, consequent on that we humbly apply that this matter be discontinued”.
Responding, the presiding judge officially pronounced the discontinuation of the legal battle, thus bringing to a conclusive end all the issues raised in the ill-fated and ill-conceived petition against the VC by the faceless Global Anti-Corruption Initiatives.