In a statement signed by few zonal representatives of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Comrade Uzo Onyebinama, Port-Harcourt Zonal Coordinator, said the only way to probe corruption in universities is through the visitation panels and not Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
Onyebinama said: “IPPIS is not the legal instrument for solving the problem of monumental fraud perpetrated by some administrators of the universities.
“IPPIS taxes rent subsidy, allowances for journals, conferences, hazard, etc., as such, and for instance, an Associate Professor at the bar pays a tax of about 672 thousand naira per annum.
“IPPIS breaches the due process for enrolment in the national housing scheme. IPPIS deducts pensions from the allowances earlier listed. IPPIS breaches university autonomy. IPPIS breaches the law.
“The legal instrument to probe corruption in the universities is the Visitation Panels. For almost a decade, ASUU has been clamoring for the constitution of visitation panels to federal universities.
“We are told that they are at the point of gazetting the panels for several weeks now. Maybe they will need like another five years to do the gazetting.
“State governments are proliferating universities without adequate funding for already established ones. Most Vice -Chancellors of state universities are at the beck and call of their visitors, unable to take any decision without recourse to their visitors.
“This struggle is not just for ASUU members. It belongs to the Nigerian people, the masses of this country. We are already down and he that is down has no reason to fear a fall. Let us all stand up for our public universities.” He explained.
This statement was signed by Comrade Uzo Onyebinama, Zonal Coordinator, ASUU, Port Harcourt zone, Comrade Emmanuel Akpan, Chairperson, Federal University Otuoke (FUO) Comrade Endurance Joseph, Chairperson, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Comrade Tonbara Kingdom, Chairperson, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island and Comrade Austen Sado, Chairperson, University of Port Harcourt.