By: Manoah Kikekon
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| Dr. Tony Dansu and LASU |
The Ikoga-Zebbe community in Badagry is making a fresh and urgent appeal to the newly inaugurated Governing Council of Lagos State University (LASU). Represented by prominent sons and daughters, the community is seeking justice and the reinstatement of their kinsman, Dr. Tony Dansu, and several other academics whose dismissals they label as unjust.
In a formal letter to the Council's Chairman, Mr. Babatunde Ogala SAN, the group highlighted the cases of Dr. Tony Dansu, Dr. Isaac Oyewumi, Dr. Adebowale Suenu, Dr. Adeolu Oyekan, and Dr. Oluwakemi Shonibare.
These lecturers were removed from their positions in 2017 and 2019 under circumstances the community believes were politically motivated and unfair. The signatories, while congratulating Ogala on his new role, expressed hope that his leadership would bring stability and a resolution to this long-standing issue.
For years, the people of Ikoga-Zebbe have engaged in peaceful protests and written numerous letters to Lagos State authorities. Their central demand has been for Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to remove an alleged embargo preventing LASU from acting on a key Governing Council decision from February 23, 2022.
That decision explicitly called for the unconditional reinstatement of the lecturers with all their backdated entitlements, benefits, and promotions.
Hope was renewed in July 2025 when the previous Governing Council, under Ogala's chairmanship, upheld the findings of its own Appeals Committee. This committee had recommended formalizing the lecturers' reinstatement. As part of the proposed resolution, the lecturers offered to voluntarily retire from the university once the reinstatement was fully implemented, a move that could have been formalized as a consent judgment.
Despite this clear pathway to resolution, the community expressed deep frustration that five months later, no action has been taken. They are now calling on the new LASU Governing Council to break the cycle of delay. Their appeal is for a decisive intervention that upholds justice and finally ends what they describe as years of victimization and undue hardship for their esteemed members.