BREAKING: Sacked UNILAG VC Withdraws Court Case Against Babalakin, Others

Prof. Toyin Ogundipe, recently sacked Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, has dropped a lawsuit he filed against the National Industrial Court to challenge his sacking by the varsity’s Governing Council.

Ogundipe had filed an ex parte application, which was pending for hearing before the National Industrial Court.

The suit, marked NICN/LA/278/2020, had as defendants: UNILAG; the varsity’s Council; its Senate; Pro-Chancellor, Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN); Registrar, Oladejo Azeez; and Prof. Theophilus Soyombo, who was appointed acting VC in the wake of Ogundipe’s controversial sacking.

Ogundipe had filed an ex parte application, which was pending for hearing before the court.

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But his lawyers, Messrs Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) and Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), approached the court on Friday with an application to discontinue the case.

The Notice of Discontinuance, filed pursuant to Order 61(1)(1) of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (Civil Procedure) 2017, simply read, “Take Notice that the claimant does hereby wholly discontinue this suit against the 1st-6th defendants.”

However, in a statement titled, “Court did not refuse Prof. Ogundipe’s case,” Adegboruwa explained that the embattled VC decided to drop the suit “upon detailed consultation with all stakeholders and his supporters in and outside the University.”

Adegboruwa said, “Prof. Ogundipe directed his lawyers to file a notice of discontinuance of the suit, and this has been done on August 21, 2020.

“This is to defer to the authority of the President as the Visitor of the University as Prof. Ogundipe has enough time to challenge his purported removal.”

This falsehood is being spread to malign the court and blackmail the judiciary by enemies of the rule of law and due process,” he said.

Adegboruwa added that the general public is therefore advised to discountenance these mindless fabrications as the handiwork of those who were afraid of subjecting their illegal acts to the true test of probity and to be wary of fake news being peddled in place of truth, especially as they related to deliberate manipulation of court proceedings.

He said there was no time that the court sat to fix any date for the case.