… as union vows to fight to the finish
- I won’t trade peace for fraud – Popoola
The Vice Chancellor of the Osun State University, Prof. Labode Popoola, and the non-teaching staff of the institution have been enmeshed in a deep crisis since the former assumed office in November, 2016.
The tussle is over the unpaid allowances of the university workers.
Findings showed that agitation for the earned and hazard allowances dated back to 2012, when the workers first demanded for it. When Popoola assumed duty, he reportedly inherited the accumulated earned allowances for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 sessions, as well as unremitted pension and tax deductions.
Though the payment was eventually approved in 2016, former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the then Visitor to the university, was said to have stayed action on the decision because the state was battling to pay salaries of workers, which forced the aggrieved workers to stage series pf protests.
The management had insisted that strike or no strike, academic activities must continue while contentious issues should be resolved amicably. But the workers would have none of that. They said the strike declared on March 5, 2018 to press for the payment of their earned allowances, must stand until payment was made.
To cow the workers to submission, the university management issued a “no work no pay” directive, a development that heightened tension in the state-owned ivory tower.
Workers, under the umbrella of the Joint Action Congress (JAC), comprising the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union and Allied Institutions (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), had told their members not to sign the attendance registers opened in the six campuses of the university for those willing to work.
JAC had called for the head of the governing council chairman, Mallam Yusuf Ali, and the VC over plans to sack the union leaders. It also made allegation of corruption, high handedness and wastefulness against the management and called for a probe of the financial activities of the almost 13-year-old institution.
They accused Popoola of squandering the N3billion purportedly inherited on resumption as the VC.
He, however, denied the allegation, saying the amount inherited was N1.8 billion. The unions also alleged that Popoola had, since the beginning of his tenure, siphoned and mismanaged the sum of N106,607,592.00 belonging to the institution.
In a petition written to the university governing council last year, the workers stated, “We wish to affirm to you (governing council) that the VC, Prof. Labode Popoola, has since inception of his tenure, siphoned the sum of six million, six hundred and seven thousand, five hundred and ninety-two (N6,607,592.00) naira to his personal coffer and has mismanaged over one hundred million (N100,000,000.00) naira. This does not include lopsided awards of contracts, inflation of contracts sum, jettisoning of due process in the award of contracts and turning himself to a contractor.”
But Popoola claimed that some union members collected money from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), but failed to use it for the purpose for which it was meant.
The VC, describing the situation as corruption fighting back, challenged the workers to come up with evidence of any shady deals in which he was involved.
Although the panel, which was set up, exonerated the VC, the workers insisted that Popoola was corrupt and, therefore, demanded that the report of the panel should be made public.
Last year, the state House of Assembly, Head of Service and heads of security agencies asked the parties to sheathe their swords to allow the lawmakers probe into the allegations. But the crisis resurged when the management reportedly suspended 10 union leaders on the grounds of disturbance of peace of the institution by protests.
After refusing to acknowledge the suspension letter forwarded to their email addresses, the management was said to have queried the workers and asked them to appear before the Staff Disciplinary Committee to explain reasons why they protested.
In the event, the management described the allegations as tissues of lies, adding that those heating up the system were not workers, but a handful of troublemakers hiding under unionism.
Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had, on December 19, 2018, quizzed Popoola for several hours over allegations of financial impropriety.
A few days after, the embattled vice chancellor suspended the union leaders and some of their members for alleged fraudulent activities, even as the VC was accused of withholding the May and June, 2018 salaries of some of the suspended workers.
The suspended leaders and members of NASU included Com Fayemi Isaiah (Chairman); Com Dada Kunmi (Secretary); Com Ojeleke Fisayo (Treasurer); and Com Ajulo Abel (Exco member). Others are Com Adefemi Lateef, Abiodun Olalekan, Salaudeen Abdulraheem, Akintaro Simeon, Oyeniyi Samson, Odeniyi Kunle, Lawal Kabiru, Quwiy Tiamiyu, Lawal Dauda, Raji Kareem, Adiamo Olayinka, Akintoye Yemi, Adeyemo Sunday, Adekanye Sola and Adewoyin Stella.
Leaders of SSANU, who were said to be suspended, included Com Adiat Lekan (Chairman); Com Ojoniyi Temitope (Vice Chairman); Com Adebayo John (Secretary); and Com Ogunleye Yewande (Women leader).
The affected NAAT members were Com Adeleke Ismail (Chairman); Com Olabiran Olayinka (Secretary); and Com Adewuyi Saheed.
Speaking with our correspondent on the telephone, one of the affected union leaders, Fayemi, said they were suspended on allegation of “gross misconduct.”
The suspended union leader said, “We protested to request for our withheld salaries for the months of May and June, 2018 and for the management to honour the agreement we both entered into in our marathon meeting of 13th and 14th July, 2018 that lasted 12 hours.
“The VC is doing these in order to cow unionism in the university. He doesn’t want to be challenged. The reasons, according to him, are that we didn’t sign attendance register in May and that we went on strike in June. But for the two months, this same VC paid 34 of our members. This, he did, to divide us but he failed.”
He added, “No work no pay policy wasn’t in existence in UNIOSUN before we went on strike. The policy was promulgated in August and we went on strike in June. ASUU went on strike in September after the said policy had been promulgated, yet they were paid. That is divide and rule method and double standard.
Can you imagine? Our Earned Allowance arrears that had been approved since December 1, 2016, has yet to be fully paid but he (VC) has money to pay to himself, illegitimate arrears of furniture allowance and the continuous monthly receipt of same.
“He (Prof. Popoola) has money to buy a car of N69m for Pro-Chancellor, Mallam Yusuf Ali. He recently bought fleets of cars of over N270m, out of which his own is N47m. His deputies, Registrar, Bursar and Librarian got a car of over N20m each. The same man will say he is cutting cost and blocking leakages. Is this how to cut cost? No wonder the 2017 accounts, the first he would superintend on, are in deficit of almost
N2bn.”
The union leader said the VC had no respect for statues of the university or financial regulations.
He said, “He doesn’t follow due process, including non-adherence to budget provisions. Despite the fact that he has been served with court process, he continues to suspend Union members. That establishes the fact that he is no respecter of laws of the land.
“Do you know that this man (VC) has also stopped the check off dues to all unions on campus? Deductions for staff welfare by the unions are also stopped. This is against the Trade union Act Section 17 A and B. He stopped all deductions in order to cripple the unions financially so as not to be able to prosecute the struggle.”
In what he described as effort at “putting the university in the better perspective, the Vice Chancellor called a press Conference on Friday, January 11, 2019, where he denied the fraud allegations leveled against him. But he claimed that the suspension of the affected workers was due to fraudulent activities against them.
The VC said, “The NASU chairman was entangled in a financial mess involving missing booklets of receipts of the university, while the secretary of NASU, Mr. Olugbeja, was illegally awarded a Tetfund Grant for a Conference in the United States of America but, unfortunately, he absconded (with) the release.
“A former Secretary of NASU in person of Mr. Olugbeja (a level 3 officer) was illegally awarded a Tetfund Grant for a Conference in the United States of America but unfortunately, he absconded. Despite this, his monthly salaries were not stopped until due process was followed. Mr. Isaiah Fayemi (NASU Chairman) got himself entangled in a financial mess involving missing booklets of receipts of the university.
Three booklets of receipts couldn’t be accounted for. All these occurred before my assumption of duties in November, 2016. “Management approved the report of the investigative panel that Mr. Fayemi and others involved in the receipt booklet scam should face the Staff Disciplinary Committee. Since that decision was taken, the university has not known peace. In accordance with financial and audit processes, the EAA of Mr. Olugbeja was stepped down by the Audit Department of the university. The stoppage of the payment to Mr. Olugbeja necessitated an agitation from NASU.
“The agitation from NASU culminated into physical assault on the then acting Head, Internal Audit by NASU members. Consequent upon all of these, a statutory committee of the University on Disciplinary Matters was convoked. Rather than members of the union to appear and submit rejoinders to all allegations, the reverse was what obtained, and not only that they refused to appear all the three times they were invited; they also disrupted the meetings.
“Consequent upon the refusal to appear before the panel and their disruptive attitudes, the committee took the allegations against them and took the decision to suspend them for the act of gross indiscipline and insubordination. The university JAC went to court to challenge the decision of the university. The court eventually ruled that employers reserved the right to institute disciplinary procedure against employees. While the court case was ongoing, the university stayed action on the suspension placed on the affected staff members.
The VC confirmed that over N300million was used to procure vehicles for top university officials and denied the corruption allegation with the EFCC, saying the Commission was only questioning him.
He said, “The crisis in UNIOSUN is not new. I will not trade peace for fraud. These same workers are the ones causing problem in this university. I wanted to resign at a point but the good people of the university said I should not. In spite of this crisis, we have not lost a session. We are moving forward. This fight is not likely to end but someone must lose”.
In his reaction, the NASU chairman said, “Olugbeja was not granted TETfund to travel. He only went on leave (self sponsored) and wrote the university of his involvement in an accident and thereby requested for leave of absence, which he was entitled to. Instead of granting him, Popoola started the process of terminating his appointment, which the VC eventually did by October 23, 2018. Olugeja was on level 8 and not 3 as claimed by the
VC.
“On the purported missing receipts booklets, I am surprised Popoola is still talking about this. I used receipts booklets in 2014, remitted both the money realised and the booklets to my then Head of Unit, Mr Rufus Adebisi. He came up with a story that booklets were missing, three years after, when the receipts were no longer in my custody.”
He noted that Popoola set up a panel to investigate and that he had appeared three times before the
panel.
The NASU chairman added, “The panel had since submitted its reports. Tell him to implement the reports of the panel if I am
guilty.
Popoola is a professional and serial liar. He fabricated all these in order to cause distraction regarding the case he has with EFCC. Tell him to concentrate on his financial impropriety case with EFCC. If he is sure I’m involved in any financial mess, tell him to take me to
EFCC.”
