Some Students of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology ESUT have accused the management of the institution of undue interference in the planned Student Union Government SUG election selected for Thursday 22nd February 2024 and appealed to the Enugu State Governor Dr Peter Mbah to urgently intervene to avoid crisis.
The students maintained that the disqualification of some of the contestants for the election without justification was unconstitutional and will not be accepted.
One of them and top contender for the position of SUG President, Mr chibuzo Longinus Ozorinyiegbu said that he was unjustly disqualified by the management to pay wave for their preferred candidate,an act he said was responsible for lack of transparency and accountability in the system over the years.
” I am a 300 level student in the department of political science. I indicated interest to run for the position of SUG President and have consulted widely including printing of posters and flyers. After I passed the school screening they went ahead and brought the DSS for security screening. As if that was not enough they equally brought Anti Cult for the same screening. It was after these screenings that a memo was released and some of us were said to be disqualified. We now went to the office of the Dean Student Affairs to know the reason behind our purported disqualification but got no answer as he told us to forget about the election and face our studies. That’s my major problem now. You said I was disqualified after screening by the DSS and Anti Cult, who among them found me wanton?. My reputation and feature is a at stake now because people need to know if I’m a cultist or had committed any crime in the past. There must be an answer and reason for my disqualification, he said”.
Mr Ozorinyiegbu told newsmen that he had already obtained a court order stopping the election from holding on Thursday this week as was earlier scheduled alleging that the whole process was faulty including the setting up of the electoral committee which has no faculty representation as was required by the SUG constitution.
He called for strict adherence to the Constitution of SUG in the conduct of the election which he believed would provide a level playing ground for all the contestants and appealed to his teeming supporters to remain law abiding.
The SUG President hopeful,who undoubtedly has the support of majority of the students said he expressed fear over the future of the country if such injustice, manipulation and open rigging could be allowed in an institution that supposed to breed future leaders and heads of various institutions.
He noted that if elected, he will collaborate with the school management to move the institution forward why ensuring that students fund are being utilized judiciously for the benefit of the students.
