At the end of the exercise it was alleged that the two officials had cornered over N2 billion through mostly school fees padding
By Henry Ibya, Makurdi
Benue State University, BSU, Makurdi governing council led by Mr. Paul Chukwuma has ordered immediate suspension of the institutions bursar, Mr. Amos Egwurube and the director information and communication technology, ICT, Mr. Terna Abuul.
Egwurube, inside sources informed our correspondent at the weekend that he was suspended for alleged financial infractions while his counterpart the ICT director, Terna Abuul was for suspected collaboration to destroy financial records of the university on the institutions portal to defraud the university.
The sources equally revealed that on assumption of office, the Paul Chukwuma-led governing council in a bid to start on a clean slate, ordered for a forensic audit to ascertain the university’s transactions.
He said at the end of the exercise it was alleged that the two officials had cornered over N2 billion through mostly school fees padding.
According to the insider who pleaded anonymity, the indicted officials having discovered that they were implicated by findings of the forensic audit and the consequences that would follow the alleged offense, crashed the university portal with the aim to destroy all information about the university including financial records and transactions together with the discoveries of the forensic audit committee.
The source lamented that crashing the portal which might be to the advantage of the two suspended staff to assist them cover up their alleged illegal transactions, the development on the other hand has caused a lot of inconveniences to the university community, stressing that the crashing of portal has led to postponement of examinations more than two times.
The anonymous source further revealed that each time the university portal would collapse, it was obvious that the two staff would allegedly benefit, rushing to the bank smiling at the expense of poor students, alleging that each time the portal crashes, N20 million contract is awarded for refixing and the amount paid to the contractor upfront.
In a circular signed by Mr. Aondona Tor-Anyiin secretary of the university governing council copied to all Deans of Faculties and Heads of Department, titled request for information which a copy was obtained by our correspondent during investigation, the council directed the ad-hoc committee headed by the DVC academics to determine school fees owed by students between 2019/2020,2020/2021,2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 respectively.
Reacting to the development during a telephone interview, yesterday, in Makurdi, Director ICT BSU Mr. Terna Abuul confirmed the suspension but denied conniving with anybody to defraud the university.