Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Kayode Soremekun, has urged unions to be thorough in their investigations before raising accusations that would dent the image of the university’s system.
He stated that universities as ivory towers must show good examples by disseminating information that add values to the society.
Soremekun stated this, on Wednesday, while reacting to issues raised by the union on alleged pension fraud, illegal employment and biased appointments of professors raised against him by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Akure Zone.
The union specifically accused him of appointing people without Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) certificates into the rank of professors.
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But dismissing the allegations as ‘baseless’, Prof. Soremekun said FUOYE was not in charge of pensions deduction and remittance.
His words: “As a way of educating Zonal ASUU, pension day deductions from staff salaries are not carried out by the university authorities; rather they are deducted at source at the office of the Accountant General, remitted to Pension Commission for onward delivery to staff members respective Pension Fund Administrators.”
On the upgrading of a non-PhD holder academic staff to the professorial cadre, Prof. Soremekun said the development was not strange as precedents abound in other universities.
“Becoming a professor depends on what you can offer and not about this certificate mediocrity of a thing,” he said.
The vice chancellor accused some members of ASUU as being part of those that mismanaged N10 million released by his predecessor, Prof. Isaac Asuzu, for the school’s farm inherited by his administration.
He said due process was followed in staff recruitment as approved by the governing council with a certificate of compliance issued by the Federal Character Commission.
He added, “This university started operation eight years ago, we understand that it will be impossible to have everything at once.
“The National Universities Commission regulates all activities of the universities and the governing council is in charge of recruitments and there is no way they can allow us to circumvent the laws.
“We have paid hazard allowance to all staff and this happened for the first time in the history of this university.
“But the non-payment of relocation allowance should not be blamed on us, it stated from the time of my predecessors but we are taking time to address it as soon as possible.”