The management of the University of Benin has responded to the resignation letter of the Venerable Egbenusi Osazee David and the subsequent reporting it generated, describing both as mischievous and uncharitable to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Edoba Omoregie, SAN.
In a statement signed by the institution’s Director of Public Relations, Dr. Benedicta Ehanire, on Sunday, May 11, 2026, management said it read the online publication written by one Miracle Chukwudi “with utter shock and disgust,” and rejected the allegations against the Vice Chancellor as “spurious and unguided.”
The statement defends the Vice Chancellor’s frequent absences from campus as statutory obligations, noting that his engagements in Abuja and within the university’s host community have yielded significant dividends for the institution, including the ongoing construction of a four-floor Senate Building, the employment of over 500 new teaching and non-teaching staff the first in ten years and the attraction of World Bank and TETFund grants for academic and infrastructure development.
Management insisted that these achievements could not have been possible without the level of networking the Vice Chancellor is engaged in.
On the Chaplain himself, the statement takes a markedly different tone. Management said it is “relieved” by his resignation, stating that he “has literally not functioned effectively” as CR4IC Chairman.
It describes his resignation letter as written in “bad faith” and traces the root of the friction to a dispute over electricity billing, alleging that the Venerable had adopted a “belligerent disposition” toward university management after a decision was made for campus electricity consumers to pay amounts commensurate with their operations.
The statement claims that while other religious bodies on campus accepted and cooperated with the new arrangement, the Venerable remained adamant, creating recurring friction with university authorities.
Management further alleges that the Chaplain’s act of forwarding clips of violence to the Vice Chancellor was not born of duty but of motive. “The persistent posting of clips of violence outside the University’s campus by the Venerable to the Vice Chancellor,” the statement reads, “was seen as a deliberate attempt at seeking attention and excuse for the CRC4 Committee’s leadership failure.”
The statement makes no direct response to the Chaplain’s core allegation that was initially reported by Truth Live News of how the Vice Chancellor telephoned him furiously, issued a countdown ultimatum, and ordered him to delete footage of a murder.
It does not deny that the call took place, nor does it address the substance of the threats the Venerable says were made against him. It also does not address the deaths of the two students killed at the main gate on Sunday or the Biochemistry student currently receiving treatment at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.
Management closed its statement by assuring all stakeholders that the university campuses are “calm and safe,” and that the Vice Chancellor “will not be distracted by those who do not mean well for the University.”
