by Early this week, I read the spurious publication of purported allegations against Professor Florence Obi, Vice Chancellor of University of Calabar with bemusement. It is true that corruption has a way of lashing back at its traducers once it is discovered and threatened in order to escape the just punishment that it duely deserves, according to the laws of the land. Otherwise how has it become so very convenient that the Vice Chancellor is being only now accused of circumstantial corruption at the heat of her prosecution of the former dean of the faculty of law for allegations of sexual improprieties and administrative misbehaviour.
Even if one accepts the allegation that the Vice Chancellor gave employment to her biological daughter who has not been coming to work, at what point did the dean know about this? Why did the dean of the faculty of law have to wait until he himself came under investigation before he suddenly realized that the Vice Chancellor’s daughter was not coming to work. Is there any evidence that the dean queried or reprimanded the staff who is in his faculty before his own travails ensued, or is he and perhaps his associates crying wolf where none exists?
One is rather taken aback to read the allegations that the said lady has bought a house in Abuja for the sum of N44million, thus giving the impression that the Vice Chancellor bought the N44million house using her daughter as a cover. I am wondering how befitting the N44million house will be for a VC to perhaps retire to Abuja after her tenure. Maybe I need to state that the Vice Chancellor’s village house built several years ago may be valued far more than N44million today.
I should be grateful to know precisely where decent houses befitting of a Vice Chancellor are being sold in Abuja for N44million, so that I too would go grab one for my good self. I am however quite sure that with that amount of money one may not be lucky enough to find a mud house with thatch roofing in the interior Gwari villages or the slums in the outback of Nassarawa state. It is easy to find this allegation very hilarious in proper consideration of the person involved.
For the avoidance of doubt, Queenette Bankpang Agbe, who I know very well is a very learned lawyer who was in the Nigerian Law School between 2007-2008 after bagging an LLB from Madonna University. She left for the UK where she earned a certificate in Professional Mediation, Reconciliation and Arbitration in 2009 before bagging an LLM (with specialization in Telecommunications and Maritime law) from the University of Hertfordshire in 2012. She worked in the Uk before returning to Nigeria to join Afe Babalola and Co. as a Senior Associate.
She later joined Baze University as Lecturer 11, before her appointment as Special Assistant Legal by Distinguished Senator John Owan Enoh. She later left to work as Company Secretary to MYSTROSE (an oil company). She is a principal partner and founder, QBA SOLICITORS .
This girl has been going out and in of the country for almost two decades before her mother became Vice Chancellor. So giving the impression that it’s the university money stolen by her mother that is spent on her is a fallacy.
The Vice Chancellor’s children are all hardworking adults who can answer for themselves. Joseph Nte Bisong who they also accused of buying a garden in Abuja for N40million, is a Deputy Director at the Nigerian Universities Commission and also runs a Restaurant and Bar in one of the gardens in Abuja. As a Deputy Director and son of a Vice Chancellor, one would have thought he will simply sit back to enjoy the wealth his mother the Vice Chancellor is accused of accumulating but this young man is still on the streets struggling.
Hillary Bisong has been in government since Senator Liyel Imoke was Governor. He worked as PA and later SA to Senator Imoke for 7 years before he left government. He is a third term member of the Cross River House of Assembly who is still living in the Assembly quarters. His colleagues with no Prof. or Vice Chancellor mother have property all over calabar and are living in their own houses.
So Hilary can only own a property as a cover up for his Mother? Lies, Lies, lies.
Thorough investigation should be done to unravel the true owner of the house opposite the Presbyterian church. Only then will we know that corruption is fighting back.
I am very sure that no matter how many false accusations and tall tales the cat drags into issue, Professor Florence Obi will remain resolute and undaunted. Her resolve to reposition the University of Calabar shall also not wane even if a thousand fabricated stories break upon the earth like a feather pillow bust asunder in a gale. Those who have corruption and disciplinary questions to answer in the University of Calabar should face their issues squarely without diverting the attention of the public and the VC.
Eko Bassey writes from Ikom
