The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, Prof. Isaac Asuzu, has said the demands being made by the staff of the school cannot be met because they contravened the regulations of the Federal Government.
Asuzu, while speaking with journalists at the weekend in Ado Ekiti, accused the staff of the university of conspiracy and gang-up against him.
The staff last Thursday staged a protest in Oye Ekiti accusing the vice chancellor of high handedness and corruption.
During the crisis, the staff barricaded the road leading to the school and called for Asuzu’s removal over several allegations leveled against him.
Responding to the staff action at a press conference, Asuzu said he suspected that the staff were being instigated against him by a certain clique.
He argued that all the actions he had taken since assumption of office two years ago were within the ambit of the law.
He said he could not do anything that would send him to jail because he wants to satisfy the interest of the staff.
Faulting the allegations of outrageous tax deduction, selective promotion of staff, illegal deductions from salaries, nonpayment of allowances and ineptitude leveled against him
by the workers, he said they were not only frivolous but flies in the face of commonsense.
Asuzu said the tax he had been deducting from salaries was done in consonance with the new Federal Tax Law, which says the gross or consolidated salaries should be taxed rather than the basic being proposed by the workers.
He said the agitation by the aggrieved staff that pension contributions should be based on Consolidated Medical/Health Salary Scale, CONTISS and CONUASS with the exclusion of Rent Subsidy and Peculiar Allowance, contravenes the Pension Reform Act.
He added: “Whatever I have done was done in accordance with the law.
“This University was ranked 17th out of over 100 universities in Nigeria in 2014.
“This University ranks the best among the 12 established by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.
“This was made possible because we were doing the right thing.”
Asuzu, however, revealed that he has been holding meetings with the Governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose, on how to negotiate for a possible downward review of tax being deducted to cushion the effect on the staff.
He said the University has reduced the tuition fee from about N66,500 to N35,000, predicating this action as a way of making lives better for the students, particularly those from poverty-stricken backgrounds.
He said: “The issue here is that the staff are making demands that contravene the statutory regulations of the Federal Government and the management is asking them to comply with those regulations.
“I cannot afford to be sent to jail because I want to protect their interests.
“Things must be done properly.
“I know of a university that received N1.2 billion financial support from the host state as take-off grant.
“But Ekiti State has only donated a sum of N25 million and a coaster bus to help this university since inception.
“We don’t have enough money to be paying all these demands and they have to show understanding.”
The Vice Chancellor also pointed out that the Federal Government only funds hazard allowance for health workers in the university, stating the universities that were paying across board in the country have been doing that from their Internally Generated Revenue, the capacity he said the institution is yet to have financially because it is still at the infancy.
Asuzu added that the university also has no capacity to pay the 13th salary being agitated by the workers,.
He said such provision is not being funded by the Federal Government and the university cannot shoulder such responsibility out of its lean financial status.
On the brouhaha caused by restricted Internet Service in the University, Asuzu said the management is taking desperate steps to strengthen its internet facilities for all workers to have access and to make them ICT compliant.
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