Ten years after his quest to become the Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, was truncated, Dr. Peter Ekemezie, has petitioned the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) University, Awka, on alleged “false defamatory petition” of forgery and other irregularities preferred against him which purportedly led to his not actualizing his ambition.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
Ekemezie, an academic staff of the then Anambra State University, now Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli Campus, moved to Unizik in July 2019 as a condition precedent for handling his invention, “Production of Automotive Brake Pad Using Kaolin as Frictional Materials. After the submission of his Ph.D.dissertation with Unizik (1st Defendant) which was forwarded to National Office for Technology Acquisition and Production (NOTAP) by Dr. now Prof. V.I.E. Ajiwe on May 20, 2019 in his capacity as the 1st Defendant of Intellectual Property and Technical Transfer Office (IPTTO) Coordinator, the project later got evaluated. The patent, it was learnt, was granted in 2016 with registration No.RP/NG/P/2016 and collected from NOTAP on behalf of the Claimant and 1st Defendant’ by Prof. Frank Ogbo, IPPTO Coordinator on February 4, 2019 as V.I.E. Ajiwe’s successor.
However, the story changed in 2019 when the Claimant celebrated his 47th birthday anniversary and announced his intention to contest for Unizik’s Vice Chancellorship seat only for him to witness opposition from the camp of the favoured candidate of 2nd Defendant and alleged use of the institution’s internal members and claimant’s two departmental colleagues to write false defamatory petition against him.
The petition, titled, “Fraudulent Claim of Patent by Peter Ekemezie and Other irregularities in his current Appraisal,” which falsehood he claimed was published in some national dailies led to his interdiction and summary dismissal on 10th October 2019 purportedly without following “the due process stipulated under Section 13(I)(7)(vi and vii) of the 1st Defendant’s Senior Staff Conditions of Service.
Not satisfied, Ekemezie filed the petition against the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (Unizik) Awka (1st Defendant and Governing Council of Unizik (2nd Defendant), in the suit No.NICN/AWK/40/2024, observing that his sack didn’t follow due process as stipulated under Section 13(1)(7)(vii and viii) of the 1st Defendant ‘s Senior Staff Conditions of Service and thus denied him his fundamental rights to fair hearing hence the unlawful nature of his interdiction.
The said petition titled, “Fraudulent Claim of Patent by Dr. Ekemezie and other irregularities in his current appraisal,” the claimant is seeking a declaration that his wrongful dismissal prevented him from fulfilling his ambition of becoming the Vice Chancellor of the 1st Defendant after the expiration of tenure of Professor Charles Esimone in June 2024.
“The Claimant also is praying for an order of the court to set aside his dismissal on October 10, 2019 for being mala fides. The. claimant equally demanded that he be returned as the Vice Chancellor in compensation for the alleged sponsored petition that not only dismissed him as an academic staff, but also sealed his hope of becoming the Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University.”
