*Says viral photos done to blackmail him
By KEMI KASUMU
Attempt to smear the personality of Prof. Emmanuel Victor Osodeke, President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), with allegation that he can comfortably lead his union to shutdown Nigerian universities because his own children school abroad has been foiled.
This was as a combined photograph showing an acclaimed female graduate of University of Chicago, United States of America, went viral, simply telling the Nigerian and global viewers a loaded message.
The pictorial post had gone out with a covering note: “This Is Juiana Chidera Victor Osodeke, Emmanuel Osodeke’s 21-year-old Last Daughter Who Recently Graduated From The University of Chicago, Illinois, United States.”
But having found the post, The DEFENDER, Nigeria’s foremost multilingual newspaper trusted for its ‘…defending the truth and national integrity’, readily put several calls to the Kokori, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State-born Professor of Soil Science with a view to enabling him state to us his own side.
Although the ASUU President did not respond or return any of our several telephones Friday morning, after sending two consecutive text messages, he finally responded, although at that time we already saw a twitter message branding the post a FAKE NEWS.
The viral Fake News.
In our first text message we have said to him, “Prof, I called from The DEFENDER Newspaper. I don’t know if you have see the social media post saying your daughter, Juliana, graduated from Chicago University. I need you to react to it and, if true, tell if it is part of the concerns you fight for that led you to educating your daughter abroad and not in one of universities of which you serve as ASUU President. Kindly respond. Thank you.”
When he would finally respond, Prof Osodeke told The DEFENDER that, “All my children are boys, I have no daughter. So it fake and attempt to blackmail.”
The DEFENDER reports Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, a Nigerian Professor of Soil Science at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State and President of ASUU and former Vice President of the union, was born in Kokori, Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State. He got his BSc from Rivers State University of Science and Technology (1987), and a Master of Science from the University of Ibadan (1989).
He went on to obtain his Postgraduate Diploma in Agro-meteorology from the Israeli Institute of Meteorology (1994), and in 2002, he got his PhD from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Abia State.
Osodeke was a lecturer at Delta State University, Abraka, he was also the Chairman of ASUU iin Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. He is a visiting professor at the University of Calabar and University of Cape Cost, Ghana. On 30 May, 2021 he was elected President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Osodeke is married to Onome Osodeke and they have four children, according to his online profile updated as at 14 September 2022, and by his according also to his reply to The DEFENDER Friday morning of 16 September, all of the four are boys and none is a girl to suggest any truth in the social media story about “his daughter graduating from University of Chicago”.
We are used to blackmail. This one is the height of it. This is like accusing our National President of extra-marital affairs. So, Juliana may have been gotten outside wedlock. Shame on all of you propagating this hopeless and baseless lies. We leave you in the hands of God (no thanks to Gburugburu). Our National President and his wife, Onome, have four kids. All of them are boys. We know them. We cannot be distracted. We stand with our Predident. We stand with ASUU