By Callistus Agwaza
JALINGO – Members of the Taraba State University Visitation panel have described a news paper report that alleging that they were offered the sum of 100 Million Naira to water down the report of the panel as fake and baseless.
Those who spoke to journalists anonymously said the report is an imagination of the paper and the writer and they are not aware that such offer was made.
“Some of us are men of integrity and we believe that is why the Governor put us there. There was no time that such over was made, and at no time was any discussion done or any deliberation at committee level on any such offer” one of the committee members said.
Another member who also faulted the alligation said “what we did was a holistic work, we are not targeting any person or individual, what we are after is the progress of the Institution and work that covers more than 10 years, so it goes beyond one or two administrations
of the University”.
Other high ranking members of the University Community who commended the state government for setting up the committee noted that the report of the committee did not in anyway specify that the alleged misappropriation were done during the time of the present Vice Chancellor Professor Sunday Bako.
“We have worked with Professor Bako for the last two years and any sane person will admit that the university has experienced unprecedented development and transformation. If he was a money embezzling VC, I doubt if we would have seen such transformation under such a short period.
“People should understand that this is a report that spans 10 years and 3 administrations. So let us not run to draw conclusions. Let us wait for the details of the report and see the specifics. But I can assure you that Professor Bako is the best thing that has happened to the university so far.
“The committee actually recommended the recruitment of more academic staff to boost manpower capacity of the University, and commended the management of the University for the Accreditation exercise done recently and recommended expedient action towards accreditation of some other critical courses. This shows that the exercise is aimed at the ultimate improvement of the University system rather than witch-hunting the VC as some would want to. make it seem.
“We are aware that the State Governor Dr Agbu Kefas is a very focused leader with the ultimate good of the state at large at heart. For the governor, the improvement of the University to become a world class University is by far too important to be sacrificed on the alter of mediocrity. His decision to slash the tuition of the University and accommodation fare is a sure testament to this.
“So those trying to trivialise issues and bring him so low to the level of witch-hunting the VC are at best been very mischievous” he submitted.
