http://punchng.com/ssanu-storms-efcc-office-demands-funaab-vc-probe/

SSANU Storms EFCC Office, Demands FUNAAB VC Probe


Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and President, Association of African Universities, Prof. Olusola Oyewole

Olufemi Atoyebi, Ibadan

THE National body of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities on Wednesday staged a demonstration at the Ibadan, Oyo State office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

They called on the Federal Government to investigate the financial and other administrative activities of the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Prof. Olusola Oyewole.

The union vowed not to allow the VC, who is under investigation by the EFCC, to return to the institution until he answered all allegations levelled against him.

During the peaceful protest, leaders of the union noted that there were lots of financial malpractices and other forms of mismanagement going on in the Nigerian university system, promising to make available documented evidences to back up their claims.

The union leaders added that effort was ongoing to expose corrupt VCs of federal institutions across the country.

Representatives from different chapters of the union, which included the University of Ibadan, FUNAAB, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso and the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Ibadan were present at the protest.

Members of the union carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Oyewole must go,’ ‘Vice-Chancellors, stop victimising our members’ and ‘A thief cannot be our Vice-Chancellor.’

The Chairman of SSANU in UI, Wale Akinremi, who spoke on behalf of the leaders of the union, said the group staged the protest to condemn and reject the recent suspension of members of the union by the embattled VC.

He said the suspended members were targeted because they wrote a petition against Oyewole to the EFCC.

“Our position is that as from this moment, SSANU as a union ceases to recognise Prof. Oyewole as the VC of FUNAAB. Our members are not suspended because as of the time he wrote the letter, he himself was on suspension as the VC of the university, whether he has been given the letter or not, the position of the law is that, he was on suspension as of the time he claimed to be writing the letter,” said Akinremi.

He noted that there was too much recklessness in the handling of funds that came to FUNAAB and other universities from the Federal Government.

“We are saying that the Federal Government should beam its searchlight on the university system, especially on the pro-chancellors, the vice-chancellors and the bursars,” he added.

Copyright PUNCH.