The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) has denied allegations of fraud levelled against its Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali and his predecessor, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, by the Academic Union of Universities (ASUU).
UNILORIN described the allegations as infantile lies, “largely empty and merely rehearsed to make it look real”.
Some ASUU officers in the Southwest petitioned Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accusing Ambali and Oloyede of pension fund scam, running into N2.5 billion, and called on the anti-graft agency to probe the matter.
But the university management dismissed the petition, saying those behind it were “enemies of progress who are aghast at the pace of progress being recorded by the university daily”.
A statement by UNILORIN’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Kunle Akogun, said there was nothing new in the allegations. He noted that “the same fellows made the same allegations last August while shamefacedly kicking against the well-merited appointment of Prof. Oloyede as registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
“And, of course, no one took them seriously, as even President Muhammadu Buhari is not unaware of the due diligence credentials of the successive administrations of the University of Ilorin.
“What the administration of Prof. Oloyede did was what the law and ICPC directed all universities to do: that instead of the 7.5 per cent being hitherto deducted from the basic salary of workers, the deduction ought to have been from the gross emolument.”
Akogun added that the clarification had since guided the management’s action and the deductions were being credited to the Pension Fund Administrators’ (PFA) accounts as and when due, till the government started deducting from source.
“It is also a fallacy to allege that the university’s management did not carry the unions along in all these. The truth is that management met with the unions on the new development and all parties agreed that the PFAs should be credited the full 7.5 per cent. It was the initial under-deduction that was spread for payment over a 24-month period. This had since been concluded a couple of years ago,” Akogun added.
The spokesperson, who described the petitioners as “disgruntled elements” and “remnants of the notorious 419”, noted that their activities within the last one year had been targeted at disrupting the university’s uninterrupted academic calendar.
He urged the EFCC to discountenance the petition, noting that “we are certain that the anti-graft agency will duly consign it to where it rightly belongs: the trash can”.
