Over 8 Billion Fraud: Governor Yahaya Bello must stop blackmailing lecturers- PDP

The National Coordinator People Democratic Party Youth Frontier, Comrade Usman  Okai Austin has advised lecturers and staff of Kogi State University, Anyigba not to be cajoled into reopening the university on the premise of blackmail orchestrated by the State government to force the staff and management into resumption

A statement issued to newsmen Sunday July 16 by Austin describing the allegation of N 8.4 billion fraud by some lecturers of Kogi State University as diversionary, devilish and inhuman of the wild and viral publication of a seven year old fraud were some lecturers were indicted

Austin said it is completely an unrealistic statement for an institution whose internally generated reveue and wage bill is not substantial to have engaged in siphoning 100 million naira every month, saying they are tissues of white lies.

He alleged that the new Bursar imposed on the institution without recourse to the extant laws governing the school ?has commenced the dubious project he was commissioned to do, by indicting innocent management and staff of the institutions.

The PDP Youth Frontier Coordinator added that the university environment is an ivory tower were the monthly salaries of staff cannot be determined on monthly basis owing to engagement of different staff ranging from academic and non-academic staff.

He also admonished lecturers of Kogi State University not to succumb to such cheap blackmail emanating from the current administration.

“Academic environment consists of sabbatical, visiting, contract, part time, ?permanent staff, consultants and research fellows who are daily engaged by the university and salaries are determined as at when due, so how come the chunk of unimaginable amount was stolen from its coffers?. Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello should pay workers and pensioners their entitlements and stop adoring pages of newspapers, screens of television and headlines of radio with such misgivings on their monumental failure”, he averred.

Recall that the Kogi State government through the Director General Media and Publicity to Governor Yahaya Bello, Kingsley Fanwo on Friday said the current administration has uncovered fraud of over N8.4 billion committed by three officers of the State University in Ayingba.

According to Fanwo, they had been embezzling N100 million monthly for the last seven years and that the fraud was discovered during the last staff screening exercise.

Though he was not forthcoming on the identity of the people involved, according to him, the money was stolen by planting ghost workers, vowing that every kobo defrauded the State Government must be accounted for.

×