Professor Niyi Akingbe, a former lecturer at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) in Ekiti State, has secured a favorable ruling in a legal dispute with the university.
The National Industrial Court in Akure has ordered FUOYE to compensate Professor Akingbe with the sum of 40 million Naira for wrongful dismissal from lecturing at the University.
Professor Niyi Akingbe served as the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts and was dismissed in 2018 over allegations of plagiarism.
Before his dismissal, he had been a prominent critic of the university’s administration under former Vice Chancellor Kayode Soremekun.
Following a protracted legal battle of approximately six years, the court ruled in favor of Professor Akingbe and found him to be innocent of the plagiarism charges. The Presiding Judge, Honourable Justice K.D. Damulak articulated that the allegations were imprecise and devoid of substantial evidence.
The court determined that the university had failed to comply with the requisite procedures as outlined in the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti Act of 2015, as well as the pertinent regulations governing the service conditions of senior staff.
The judgement partly reads: “A declaration that the claimant’s dismissal vide letter dated 31st October 2018 without fair hearing is null and void. The defendant is hereby ordered to pay the claimant general damages assessed at N40,000,000(Forty million Naira only) within Thirty days of this judgement or the sum shall attract 10% interest per annum. This is the judgement of the court and it is hereby entered.”