Employees and students of the Federal University of Paraíba were subpoenaed and gave testimony to the Federal Police after being accused by the institution of “crime against the honor and threat to the acting dean”, Valdiney Gouveia.
Public servant Lena Leite, student Odara Alves and three other UFPB professors were summoned by the PF to testify. According to Lena, the case stems from a speech given at the University Council in which Gouveia was called an “intervener”.
understand the case
Last year, the Committee Against Intervention at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), made up of university entities and collectives, presented a dossier that points to a series of problems in Valdiney’s management: repression and censorship in the academic environment; attacks on representative entities and democratic movements; disregard for the living conditions of students and workers; university management subordinated to the ideological alignment with the extreme right and usurpation and emptying of the attributions and competences of the Institution’s Superior Councils.
:: UFPB Council concludes meeting without decision on dismissal of rectors ::
In May of this year, the dismissal of the rector Valdiney Gouveia was evaluated in a meeting that involved the three main deliberative bodies of the UFPB: the University Council (Consuni), the Superior Council for Teaching, Research and Extension (Consepe) and the Board of Trustees . The meeting, however, was chaired by the vice-rector of the institution, Liana Filgueira, which was considered irregular. The meeting ended without conclusion.
Censorship?
Student Odara Alves and servant Lena Leite told Mônica Bergamo’s column in Folha de São Paulo that the motivation of the current rectory is to censor the UFPB community. “It is a state of repression and persecution of anyone who stands against this rectory,” said Odara.
In a statement, Sintes-PB, the Higher Education Workers’ Union of Paraíba, expressed solidarity with the subpoenaed professionals and spoke of persecution. “The current management of the UFPB, imposed on the academic community in disrespect to the democratic will of the majority, found in intimidation and harassment a means of sustaining itself, since it does not have the support of the people who truly make up the UFPB. resorted, more and more, to legal processes in an attempt to silence and persecute those with the courage to criticize”, they declared.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office at the UFPB, said that “it only responded to the request of the rectory of the educational institution and forwarded the report of the attacks to the Federal Police, the competent body to investigate the case”. The Federal Police, however, will not speak about the case because the investigation is still in progress.
Source: BdF Paraíba
Editing: Polyanna Gomes
