The Vice Chancellor of Nigeria Maritime University (NMU), Okerenkoko, Delta State, Prof. Emmanuel Adigio, said the institution did not receive any N3Billion from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for the payment of allowances.
He said, in a statement that there was no record that such an amount was paid into the university’s coffers by NIMASA, even as he added that funds provided by the Federal Government to any institution were monitored by the anti-graft agencies.
According to him, the monitoring mechanism put in place by the Federal Government makes it impossible for funds to be diverted or hidden.
He stated that: “If you divert any fund meant for a particular project on something else, then you are inviting trouble to yourself as the officials of the Anti-graft agencies are monitoring such funds. So if I’ve diverted such huge funds, by now they would have come after me.
“Permit me, therefore, to set the record straight that at no time was such money released for the settlement of allowances by NIMASA. So the issue of the N3billion you raised is unfounded.
“If such money had been released to this institution, I think I would be most excited and I’m sure everybody would have been smiling by now. But as far as such fund is concerned, it was not released to us.”
The Vice-Chancellor however admitted that all is not well at the institution, but reaffirmed commitments in tackling some of the major challenges confronting the University in the new year.
The VC maintained that it would be insensitive on his part to claim that all is well in the University when, according to him, there are “obvious challenges facing it, as the inconveniences both the staff and students are currently passing through are synonymous with newly established institutions in the country until they are fully stabilized.”
Adigio lamented the plights of some staff in terms of cost of transportation to work, inadequate accommodation and unsettled end of year bonus, but assured that all the problems are surmountable if they can all join hands together to find lasting solutions to them.
He lamented the plight of some staff in terms of cost of transportation to work, inadequate accommodation and unsettled end of year bonus.
He said the problems were surmountable if they could join hands to find lasting solutions to them.
Adigio, however, noted that such inconveniences that staff and students were experiencing were common with new institutions until they were fully stabilised.
“We quite appreciate the sacrifices and pains they have been through but the fact remains that in a shortest possible time things would change for the better and those of us who are here today will begin to enjoy it.
“A lot of our challenges would have been over and the institution would be well positioned to meet up with some of the pressing welfare demands that most of our staff and students had to contend with in the school environment.
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“We are not unmindful of the difficult terrain we are located and the stress most of our staff resident in Warri, Port Harcourt, and other parts of the country had to go through in terms of transportation to get here and even accommodation issues, as most of them cannot afford to bring their families to come and live with them where they are presently working.
“But we are equally not relenting in our collective efforts at getting all these things fixed, including the end of year bonus promised staff and we hope to settle all that once we are able to receive the funds we are expecting in the new year.
“We are very optimistic that as we go into the new year we are going to be tackling these issues that had impeded on the welfare of our staff and students one after the other with the support of government, our donors and relevant stakeholders.:
On the unpaid end of year bonus, the VC stated: “Yes, I made some promises with huge expectations from the donors, especially those who had promised to give us some funds to meet up with certain obligations in the last quarter of the year”.
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