DETAILS emerged over the weekend that five of the over 15 candidates who applied for the post of Vice- Chancellor of the university have been selected for interview by the university's Council.

Very competent sources within the institution confirmed that four internal candidates and one candidate presented by the Search Committee were selected from the long list of accomplished professors seeking to take over from the out-going VC, Professor Isaq Oloyede.

Oloyede's tenure will end before November this year.

Those who scaled the initial hurdles are Professor Timothy Opoola, Professor Hassan Salihu, Professor Luke Ayorinde, Professor AbdulGaniyu Ambali and Professor Adesanya.

One candidate surprisingly left out of the short listing race was Professor Rasheed Ijaodola formerly of the Faculty of Law of the University. He is at present the Dean faculty of Law Igbinedon University Okada Edo state.

With the exception of Adesanya, the other candidates are from the university. Opoola teaches Mathematics while Salihu teaches political science. Ayorinde is the immediate past Deputy Vice Chancellor while Ambali is head of the school's Veterinary Medicine programme which has just been introduced to the institution.

The selection is a first stage in the process of appointing a new VC for the school. It is expected that each of the five candidates will now face the Governing Council which will thereafter prune the list to three that will be forwarded to the President who as Visitor will pick one.

Sources   indicated that expectedly some of the candidates have begun intense lobbying at very high quarters to seek the listening ears of those who will help the Visitor eventually decide who to choose.

"It is conventional and it is expected", a source said last night also confirming that some names have been submitted to an official of the Presidency who is believed to have a lot of weight in decision making process.

"One senior political office holder from the state submitted the CV of two candidates while the other one was lucky to have someone in the presidency who asked him to also bring his documents about three week ago", the source who is very privy to some of the intrigues in the selection process told our reporter in confidence.

From the list of candidates, it is a straight battle between Kwara central and Kwara south senatorial districts. There are those in the university community who contend that the race is actually between a candidate with the backing of Ilorin emirate and others.

But incidentally, both Professors Salihu and Ambali are from the emirate and are said to enjoy the confidence of several decision makers in the north-central city. The Acting Chairman of the school's Governing Council is also from the emirate.

Opoola is from Ijagbo in the Kwara south district while Ayorinde is an Igbomina, also in the south although with very strong roots in the emirate.