A socio-cultural organisation from Otuoke, the home town of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the Bayelsa Youths for Truth and the Rule of Law, has petitioned the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara seeking the removal of the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Otuoke, Prof. Seth Accra Jaja.

The group, in a petition to the speaker written by its lawyers, Savvy Law partners and presented by Hon. Douye Diri representing Yenogoa/Kolokuma Opokuma federal constituency of Bayelsa state, argued that Prof. Jaja’s appointment was in default of the procedure for the appointment of vice chancellors in Nigerian universities.

It submitted that President Muhammadu Buhari was misled into appointing Prof. Jaja as vice chancellor and now that it is discovered, he should reverse the decision. “We know that the president was deceived. But as a honest and forthright person, he has publicly instructed that the appointment be reversed by council, therefore, Prof. Jaja’s appointment be terminated forthwith, and a qualified professor from Bayelsa state should be appointed”

According to the petition signed by the head of the chambers, Ayibatekena Bruce Ebiki, “Prof. Seth Accra Jaja is from Rivers state and cannot therefore be appointed vice chancellor of a federal university in Otuoke, Bayelsa state. This principle has been in operation for more than 40 years.

“That the mandatory minimum requirement for the appointment of anyone to the post of vice chancellor of any federal university, requires the appointee to have had at least 10 years post professional experience. But Prof. Jaja has just done about six years as a professor, therefore, does not qualify to be appointed vice chancellor of any federal university.

“That we have verifiable information that Prof. Jaja had served the Nigeria Police Force for about 27 years and retired as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). But he lied to the Rivers State University of Science and Technology that he had not worked anywhere before joining the university.

“Prof. Jaja at the point of entry into the service of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, would have been employed on contract basis and not as a pensionable appointee. As a contract staff, his promotion could not have gone beyond the rank of a senior lecturer”

The group is praying the House that “Professor Jaja should be asked to refund the salaries he had collected over the years between senior lecturer and professor. Jaja’s inordinate ambition has exposed him. He should therefore be prosecuted for committing a criminal offence, and should be stripped of the rank of professor and this action should be published in three national newspapers”

The group lamented Bayelsa state is marginalized because it “has a PDP governor, which has made a former governor from the South South in APC, who is now a minister and a former member of the House of Representatives, now a DG in a federal government parastatal and their cohort to submit Prof. Jaja to the president to be appointed as the vice chancellor of the federal university, Otuoke knowing fully well that he is not qualified”

The group therefore called on the speaker to impress on the president to replace Prof. Jaja with a qualified indigene of Bayelsa as the vice chancellor of the Federal University, Otruoke. “We are in a positive expectation that you will advise the president and commander in chief of the armed forces, other relevant offices as the well-meaning members of Nigeria and Bayelsa state in particular will find it beneficial and more cordial to see a qualified professor of Bayelsa state as the vice chancellor of the Federal University, Otuoke”

The Authority