Striking workers at the Osun State University have faulted the report of the committee set up by the Governing Council of the institution to probe allegations of fraud and financial misappropriation leveled against the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Labo Popoola.
The committee, at the completion of its investigation, absolved Popoola of the allegations leveled against him by the Non-Academic Staff Union and the Joint Action Council of UNIOSUN.
The unions asked for the sack of the vice chancellor over alleged offences.
They claimed that the VC mismanaged over N100million, among other allegations of highhandedness and non-remittance of pension fund deducted from their salaries.
In a letter, signed by the Acting Registrar (now substantive) and Secretary to the Governing Council, Adeosun Adewale, the council said, “Following a thorough deliberation on the findings and the recommendations of the committee, council found that the allegations of financial misappropriation levelled against you were not substantiated.
“Based on the foregoing, I write on behalf of council to inform you of the above, and to formally exonerate you from the allegations.”
But speaking in Osogbo, the NASU and JAC chairmen, Comrade Isaiah Fayemi and Comrade Lekan Adiat, respectively, said the report issued by the committee was not “genuine.”
Fayemi specifically challenged the council to make the report, which exonerated the VC, public in order for people to see how the committee came about its final judgement and recommendations.
For the NASU boss, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution, Mallam Yusuff Alli (SAN), might be conniving with the vice chancellor to rip off the university.
He said Mallam Alli might have been acting the script of Popoola, owing to the N69million car the chairman allegedly got from the institution, adding that Alli might have been wrongly informed of the fraud going on within the state university system.
He insisted that the vice chancellor looted over N3billion that his predecessor left in the purse of the university, claiming that he awarded bogus and inflated contracts to his cronies and surrogates.
Fayemi said, “We, the workers of UNIOSUN, have no personal grouse with the VC; he has been mismanaging the fund he inherited in the university. We can’t fold our arms. He has siphoned over 6million and mismanaged over 100million. He connived with the Governing Council Chairman to increase his furniture allowance from N120,000 to N481,000. Our VC is taking four times what other VCs in the federal universities are taking.
“His predecessor handed over 3billion to him and we also recovered over N2billion school fees, debts owed by students. Where is this money? Still, he does not want to pay us our earned allowances. Nothing is running in the university. Workers buy working tools with their personal money and yet he is denying us our entitlements.
“We are not sure if the purported report that they claimed exonerated him emanated from the council. Something is fishy. The reports were withdrawn from members of council. They should make the report public, let all of us see it. The VC renovated eight rooms with N70million. Popoola is perpetrating a lot of administrative fraud.”
Also speaking, Adiat, who doubles as the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, accused Popoola of poorly funding the university, adding that the VC did not respond to letters written to him by the
association.
He said the association had given the VC necessary ultimatum before resorting to a strike.
He said there were injustices being perpetrated by the management of the school, saying that there would not be peace on the campus until the issues of nonpayment of allowances and poor funding were addressed.
But the Governing Council chairman denied connivance with the VC, saying he had not benefited “a dime” since he became the chairman of the council.
