The National Industrial Court in Akure has ordered the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) in Ekiti State to pay the sum of N40 million as compensation to a former professor who was wrongfully dismissed.
News About Nigeria gathered that Professor Niyi Akingbe, the former Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts, was abruptly dismissed in 2018 over allegations of plagiarism.
Reports indicate that before his dismissal, Professor Akingbe was a vocal critic of the university’s leadership under former Vice-Chancellor Kayode Soremekun, who sanctioned his removal.
However, after six years of litigation, the court declared Professor Akingbe innocent of the plagiarism allegations leveled against him.
The Presiding Judge, Honourable Justice K.D. Damulak, ruled that the plagiarism allegations were vague and lacked substantial evidence.
Furthermore, the court found that the university failed to follow proper procedures as outlined in the Federal University of Oye-Ekiti Act of 2015 and the regulations governing senior staff service conditions.
The judgment partly reads: “It is hereby declared and ordered as follows: A declaration that an allegation of plagiarism against the claimant cannot be made in the absence of the work/publication of a particular author or authors the claimant purportedly plagiarized, specifying what part of the work was copied, printed, or passed off as original without the claimant having acknowledged such works.
“A declaration that the claimant’s dismissal via a 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 judgment, or the sum shall attract 10% interest per annum. This is the judgment of the court and it is hereby entered.”
