Chukwuemeka Diji, a senior lecturer at Ibadan University, has been experiencing ‘ illegal ‘ deductions from his salary since September 2018.
Mr Diji, PhD holder, served as Head of Mechanical Engineering Department from September 2015 to July 2017 before the appointment of a substantial Head.
Investigation and records acquired disclosed that Mr Diji and his predecessor, Ademola Dare, and successor, Leke Oluwole, both professors, complained about numerous contentious monetary activities.
Also, the lecturer’s attempts to challenge his salary deductions were ineffective.
A month before the resumption of Mr Diji as head of department, his predecessor, Mr Dare, applied for a university loan of N400,000.
However, the funds were only paid to the account of the department after Mr Diji took office.
There was nothing in the handover note about the loan that Mr Diji got from Mr Dare.
Mr. Diji endorsed the transfer of the cash to his predecessor’s account, knowing that he did not apply for such a loan.
However, the professor deferred the retiring of receipts for the cash until his successor left office in 2017. He also supposedly did that only after SERVICOM persuasion, a unit saddled in the college with tracking and ensuring the provision of service.
Meanwhile, the contentious N400,000 is now being deducted from the salary of Mr Diji. The deductions began in September 2018.
According to Mr Diji and the evidence acquired, from September 2018 to January 2019 the sum of N25,000 was deducted monthly while it grew to N50,000 in February up to the moment of filing this report.
In an interview with reporters, Mr. Diji said he was not informed before the deductions by the school management.
“I learnt that the deduction was because of the salary advance obtained by Mr Dare from an unofficial source in the bursary. No letter up till date,” he explained.
“Today the financial emasculation has been stepped up with illegal and unlawful deduction of N25,000 monthly from my salary between September 2018 – January 2019. In the current month from February 2019, the deduction has been stepped up to N50,000.”
Under Section 5 of the Labor Act in Nigeria, employers may make deductions from their salaries with the approval of employees and “pay to the appropriate person any contributions to provident or pension funds or other schemes agreed to by the worker and approved by the State Authority.”
Mr Diji argues that his ordeal may result from his predecessor’s infringements that he exposed during his (Diji’s) tenure.
One of these is the running of an Energy, Technology and Management (ETM) conference bank account for the mechanical engineering department.
He thinks that running the account contravenes the federal government’s Treasury Single Account policy, which prohibits government parastatals, ministries, departments, and organizations from operating bank accounts outside the federal government’s single account.
The TSA is a bank account or a set of connected accounts through which all receipts and payments are transacted by the government.
Under the TSA, all government service and income collection transactions are operated through one account called the Consolidated Revenue Fund / Treasury Single Account (CRF / TSA), which is domiciled with the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN).
However, although the Goodluck Jonathan administration set up the TSA, it only started to be implemented after President Muhammud Buhari was sworn in in in 2015.
Mr Diji asked for the account to be closed on the basis of the TSA and what he considers to be fraud in the management of the ETM account.
He asked that the bank account be closed after the third edition of IMEETcon in 2016, according to Mr Diji’s handover notes dated August 21, 2017, which was submitted to the university’s vice-chancellor.
“The third edition of the ETM conference titled IMMEETcon 2016 took place from 7th-9th, September, 2016. The conference was successfully and the standing committee of the conference presented the report of their activities to the departmental academic staff meeting on 20th December, 2016.
“The committee was requested to close the bank account which is being used for the conference from 2012 to 2016 and a proper bank statement submitted to the department. This has not been done,” Mr Diji wrote, attaching the bank documents.
The official also stated that the transactions performed through the account were not ‘ transparent ‘ in the handover notes.
“The previous reports of the ETM conferences of 2012 and 2014 as well as the 2016 edition are not archived in the department. The committee was requested to submit this report for proper records. This has not been done.”
Meanwhile, enquiries into the account with Guarantee Trust Bank disclosed that the account existed between 2012 and 2017 when it was then closed.
According to a bank employee who didn’t want his name in print, the last transaction was a N10,000 payment made by a Lagos State lady.
“From what I checked, the account was closed upon a request by a professor and the last transaction I can see is a woman who paid in N10,000 from Lagos.”
Mr. Diji also wrote the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission (ICPC) in a letter dated 9 April 2018 and requested an inquiry into the department’s ‘ corrupt practices. ‘ He also claimed that for exposing some of the shady practices he was being victimized.
He begged the commission to compel the university to probe the organisation of the ETM conference and its account since 2012- 2016.
“Since I discovered the corrupt financial dealings and leaving office on the 31st July, 2017, I have come under various acts of intimidation and harassment from my successor in office, Professor Oluwole, who has been doing everything possible to suppress me and suppress the corrupt practices, in order to protect his friends who are the ones principally involved in the fraud,” he said.
In response to a request submitted by Mr Diji, the National University Commission, in a letter with reference number NUC / ES/96/Vol. 19/474, pledged to ‘ escalate ‘ the problems ranging from the department’s corrupt practices and its intimidation to the university authorities.
“Please, be informed that the commission has forwarded the petition to the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, for his comments on the matter. The outcome will be communicated to you as soon as we receive response from the university,” the letter read.
This reporter learnt that the embattled lecturer, in a follow-up letter, wrote to the anti-graft agency to remind it of the petition submitted in 2018 and the recent deductions from his wages in January 2019.
He also wrote the chairman of the university’s Senate, the highest decision-making body in the school, to demand justice.
The school’s spokesperson, Tunji Oladejo, said Mr Diji’s salary is being deducted because “he was the one who applied for the salary advance”, the head of department, Mr Oluwole, confirmed that Mr Diji’s predecessor, Mr Dare, applied for the salary advance of N400,000 but “the cash was paid into the complainant’s bank account”.
Meanwhile, Mr Diji said his successor, Mr Oluwole, “retired the receipts to the school bursary after much pressure”.
After several promises by the school’s spokesperson to investigate the matter, Mr Oladejo told our reporter that “there is no need for any investigation”.
“I know the university system. I know Diji very well. This thing has happened to me before. If you don’t apply for a salary advance, they will not be deducting it from your salary,” Mr Oladejo said.
Repeated efforts to reach Mr Dare, the former departmental head who requested the loan, were not successful. He did not respond to calls and text messages sent to him.
However, the current head of department, Mr Oluwole, narrated his stance.
“Dr Dare got the N400,000. Dare had finished his term and needed money to run things. When the money came around November in 2015, Diji was the HOD. So, he transferred the money to Dare’s account. Dare could not retire the receipt because of some ‘errors’ by Diji. SERVICOM looked at it that , this is a big problem.”
He did not elaborate on the errors in what ordinarily should have been a simple administrative process.
The departmental head also accused Mr Diji of corrupt practices.
“He spent the money meant for buildings given to the department during his tenure. A lot of money he stole and that is what the school is asking him to pay back. There are other issues and he has cases with the disciplinary committee.”
He, however, could not provide documents to back up his claims saying the university regulation forbids it.
When asked if any disciplinary actions were taken against Mr Diji, he said;
“This VC is not decisive and all these going on and no action. Management has kept quiet for two years.”
He also reacted to the IMEETcon scandal.
“The department was running an account before the implementation of TSA. Then when the treasury single account came, we ‘migrated’ the account to the school account. SERVICOM has looked at it and they have holistically done everything.”
Mr Oluwole, while recalling the petition written against the department to the anti-graft agency, said the findings vindicated ‘them’.
“He (Diji) wrote to ICPC first concerning this. ICPC invited all the people involved and saw nothing.”
Meanwhile, the ex-departmenrtal head, Mr Dare, the SERVICOM head, Mr Woods and the legal unit of the school declined comments on the matter when this reporter reached out to them.
When this reporter contacted the Oyo/Ogun zonal commissioner for ICPC, Stephen Pimor, he explained that the commission had not released the outcome of its investigation “to any of the parties.”
The official confirmed the receipt of two petitions from the two parties; “one from Mr Diji in 2018 and another earlier in 2019.”
He noted that investigations on the first one has been concluded but it has not been passed to the national headquarters for approval and that the second one is still under investigation.
“After we pass it to the headquarters in Abuja for approval, we will let you know the outcome of our investigation,” he said.
However, a source within the ICPC claimed the commission, while investigating the first petition, “found the school management wanting and that has delayed the release of the report till date”.
“The school is trying all it could to bury the outcome of the investigation,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the affected lecturer is demanding that the matter should not be swept under the carpet and that justice prevail.
“Ever since this started, I have been threatened to withdraw the petition with ICPC, which I will not do. They have levelled several charges against me but no evidence and document to back up.”
He further begged the school authorities to “stop defaming his personality with unverified allegations”.
“Oluwole has been saying that I stole but when the school audited my account, there was no query. At least, the university would have sanctioned me if truly these allegations are true.”