FG suspends FUTA, FUNAAB Vice-Chancellors over financial mismanagement

The Acting President Yemi Osinbajo-led Federal Government has on Thursday suspended the Vice-Chancellors of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, Prof. Adebiyi Daramola and Prof. Olusola Oyewole his counterpart at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNAAB, over their alleged mismanagement and financial recklessness. According to a letter signed by the Acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Hussaini Adamu, the suspended Vice Chancellors are to hand-over to their Deputies. The two suspended vice-chancellors are being tried by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC over an alleged mismanagement of their respective institution’s funds. Recall that the National President, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), Samson Ugwoke, had told newsmen in Lagos that its members exposed the fraud in the institutions that got the two vice-chancellors suspended to restore fiscal sanity in the university system. He however said the whistleblowing which led to the indictment of vice chancellors for fraud was not done for financial gains. “No SSANU member has ever received 2.5 per cent reward for whistleblowing because if we do so, it would seem as if the interest is in the money. “Remember that when we started all these, nobody has ever promised that if you blow whistle, you would receive one kobo. “We only did it to correct the system and make sure that the system functions; that is the concern of SSANU members. “We saw this money being siphoned illegally and we don’t feel happy; SSANU is not a whistle-blowing union,’’ the SSANU president said on Friday. Ugwoke said that once SSANU noticed any financial recklessness in the universities, its members had a responsibility to call the vice chancellor and bursar to order.