The Bursar of the University of Calabar, Mr Peter Agi, has dug himself
into a financial quagmire as his alleged shenanigans were exposed on
Monday, leading to his suspension.
A letter to Agi, signed by the Registrar of the institution, Moses Abang,
read, “In an Emergency Meeting of Management held today, August 22, 2016,
Management considered recent developments on campus especially your arrest
by the Nigeria Police vide letter no. AB:3621/CRS/DFA/VOL.T/123 of August
17, 2016 on allegations of fraud, forgery and threat to life, it has
become imperative that you step aside as Bursar and clear yourself of
these allegations.
“Furthermore, Management observed that you have been impersonating the
Vice Chancellor on the CBN e-payment platform by making final approvals
and payments, a duty that is the responsibility of the Vice Chancellor who
is the Chief Accounting Officer of the University. Bank transactions and
alerts are still being forwarded to the immediate past Vice Chancellor,
Prof. James Epoke without the Vice Chancellor’s knowledge.
“Again, you absented yourself from office without requesting any of your
Deputies to act for you, thus creating a vacuum in the administration of
the Bursary. Rather, in a circular of 18th August, 2016, you requested
members of the University community who need you for official business to
do so by reaching you on your phone number. This is absurd and not
acceptable anywhere.
“To further compound matters, you have as well:
(1) Deliberately orchestrated measures aimed at ensuring that the
University loses accreditation of its Medical Programmes by refusing to
purchase buses for the Departments of Public Health and Community
Medicine.
“This is a major requirement for accreditation and Council had directed
you several times on this yet you bluntly refused to comply.
(2) Deliberately refused to purchase official car for the Deputy Vice
Chancellor (Administration) 8 months after he was appointed into office.
You have ignored several Council and Management directives on this.
(3) Deliberately refused to purchase official car for the Dean of Graduate
School even when the Graduate School designed measures to internally
generate revenue for this purpose.
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“You have consistently ignored Management’s directives with impunity.
(4) Bluntly refused to pay TETFUND contractors who have successfully
executed jobs and rendered services to the University even when such
contractors have been cleared for payments. The consequence of this is
that while other Universities are already making progress and accessing
the 2015 allocation, the University of Calabar cannot exhaust the 2013
allocation to qualify for the next tranche.
(5) Illegally mobilized and brought into campus a group of
non-staff/students including suspected cultists, some of whom have been
charged to court.
“These your “supporters” violently molested staff and beat up Journalists
who were at the scene of the incident and even damaged their camera (as
stated in the security report and reported in the media).
(6) Unilaterally granted press interview on matters relating to the
University without clearance from appropriate authorities.
(7) Callously and with utter disregard of Vice Chancellor’s directives by
refusing to pay staff entitlements even when due process have been
followed before approval.
(8) You were issued a query on August 17, 2016 Ref. UC/R.45A to offer
explanation on your misdeeds on Campus on Monday, August 15, 2016. When
your staff told you that you have a mail, you requested for the content of
the mail to be read to you.
“Thereafter, you requested for the letter to be brought to you. You read
the letter and returned it through the same staff to your office and
directed that they should inform whoever cares that they could not deliver
the mail to you. As a follow up you left definite instruction with the
security man in your house not to receive any mail meant for you. As a
consequence, the other copy mailed to you by courier was rejected by your
gatemen.
“These actions of yours are a clear manifestation of an orchestrated and
deliberate design to bring to ridicule, the image of the University of
Calabar and indeed to cripple its progress as an institution. Management
cannot continue to close its eyes on these misdeeds and allow the
University to crumble.
“Management has therefore resolved that you should be placed on
suspension. You are therefore suspended as Bursar of the University of
Calabar with effect from Monday, August 22, 2016. You are to handover
immediately to Mrs. Atim Mensah who is the most senior Deputy Bursar while
Mr Joseph Odum is to take over the previous duties covered by Mrs
Mensah.”