The management of Ekiti State University (EKSU) has reacted to the media reports on the disengagement of some staff that occurred last year in the insititution.

According the the head, directorate of information and corporate affairs, Bode Olofinmuagun, ” most reports in the media are laced with lies.”

The statement is reproduced below :
The attention of the Management of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti has been drawn to various negative reports in the media concerning the disengagement of staff exercise that took place in the University late last year. 

The media reports have been full of lies aimed at misinforming and misleading the general public in order to attract unnecessary emotion and sympathy.

Initially,  the University Management did not want to react to the tissues of lies by joining issues with the sponsors of the media attack. However, it has become imperative to give the general public the correct facts of the matter so that such negative media reports would not continue to mislead the public. 

It is not true that only those employed in 2016 were disengaged as being rumoured. Among those that were disengaged were staff that were employed before and after 2016, who were found guilty of one form of misdemeanor or the other. 

Also, many of the disengaged staff were employed without the approval of Council and without budgetary provision. It was crystal clear that the former Vice Chancellor,  Professor Sam Oye Bandele was recklessly recruiting staff into the University without recourse to the principle of due process neither did he take  cognisance of the financial situation. It is on record that the former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Ayo Fayose had to intervene and ordered that the process be stopped until other shenanigans played out which reverted the former Governor’s directive. 

It was evident that the former Vice Chancellor was using deductions for cooperative and tax from salaries of old staff (engaged before 2016) to pay net salaries rather than remitting such deductions to the cooperative societies and the Ekiti State Inland Revenue Service (EKIRS). In other words, old staff were not receiving their full salaries, whereas those recruited from 2016 – 2018 were being paid using deductions from the salaries of the old staff. Curiously, the 2016 – 2018 staff deliberately did not join any cooperative society thus receiving their full salaries at the detriment of the old staff. Moreover, where Council gave approval for the appointment of a certain number of staff, the former Vice Chancellor increased the number by multiple folds. In some cases,  Council directed that Technologists be redeployed, but he (the former Vice Chancellor) ignored the directive and recruited new Technologists. The effect was an avoidable astronomical increase in the wage bill of the University. 

The monthly deduction plus tax is about #210 million, whereas about # 310 million is required to pay net salaries. He was committed to the payment of net salaries which led to the accumulated debt of  billions of Naira owed the various cooperative societies on campus. 

Thus, the  deductions from January  2018 to December 2019 stood at about 4.2 billion Naira but, with the efforts of the current Governing Council headed by Prof Bamitale Omole and the Management led by Prof Edward Olanipekun, about 2.5 billion Naira had been paid as deductions as at January 2020, leaving a balance of about 1.7 billion Naira.
The decision to disengage  those staff, though painful was taken by the Governing Council and not by the Visitor to the University & Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi in order for keep the University afloat, else if the decision was not taken, the University would have been shut down by now.

It is unfortunate that the name of the current Vice Chancellor’s wife is being dragged into the matter as one of the staff that ought to be affected by the disengagement exercise. For the information of the general public, the Vice Chancellor’s wife was one of the 156 staff that were recruited by the Governing Council under the leadership of Prince Adedayo Adeyeye. All the 156 members of staff had Council approval unlike those that were illegally recruited by the former Vice Chancellor. It is a known fact that the current Vice Chancellor, Prof. Edward Olanipekun, is an apostle of due process and will never be involved in any act of  illegallity. Therefore, dragging his name or that of his wife into it is needless and indeed an exercise in futility. 

The University is ready to do the needful in line with the memorandum of appointment of the affected staff. At the moment, the government subvention plus  the Internally Generated Revenue of the University are not sufficient to retain the disengaged staff particularly in areas where their services are not required .

The University Administration, under the leadership of Professor Edward Olanipekun will leave no stone unturned to make sure that it attains a world class status.