TheCable

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), have split into factions over the allegations levelled against Kayode Soremekun, the vice-chancellor.

A faction of the union had accused Soremekun of pension and recruitment fraud, allegations which he denied.

At a press conference in Oye-Ekiti, Soremekun asked the union to be thorough in its investigations before raising accusations that would dent the image of the university.

The faction loyal to the VC formed a parallel body called Congress of Nigeria Academics (CNA).

Olu-Olu Olufayo, zonal coordinator of ASUU, had accused Soremekun of promoting academic staff without following due process and also failing to remit pension funds to workers in line with the federal government’s directive.

Soremekun said the council and the senate were aware of every appointment made and that pensions were deducted directly from the office of the accountant-general of the federation and not the university.

He added that due process was followed in staff recruitment as approved by the governing council with a certificate of compliance issued by the Federal Character Commission.

“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,” he said.

“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.”