Staff Writer
According to a former scribe of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Owei Lakemfa, Dr. Dipo Fashina, the former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and chairman of the Joint Action Front, JAF, an umbrella organization for pro-labor civil society organizations, CSOs, was never reported missing.
The retired Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ife, Osun State lecturer was reported missing on social media, but Lakemfa, a columnist and rights campaigner, said: “A person whose whereabouts we knew, could not have been missing.”
In a statement headed “A bit of clarification is necessary on former ASUU President, Dr. Dipo Fashina,” Lakemfa stated that Dr. Fashina had traveled on Saturday, July 1, 2023, at the invitation of the Algerian government. On Sunday, July 2, he missed his connecting flight from the Istanbul Airport to Algiers. He made an attempt to book a different connecting flight, but failed.
He misplaced his phone on Tuesday, July 4, making it impossible to approach him directly. A Nigerian ambassador was with him the following day, on Wednesday, July 5, but attempts to secure a reissued or fresh ticket were unsuccessful since the trip was overbooked.
His scheduled arrival date in Abuja was set for Friday, July 7, 2023. But he was unable to board the plane for as-yet unidentified reasons, which may have included the fact that he did not finish the first leg of his voyage and that Air Algiers, rather than Turkish Airlines, provided his ticket.
The Nigerian Embassy in Turkey immediately dispatched an official on Sunday morning to connect with Dr. Fashina and secure a Monday, July 10, 2023 (today) flight for him after learning that he was not on that Friday night flight. His family, ASUU, and comrades also took immediate action, sending someone to Istanbul.
