The management of Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Ondo state has debunked allegations that the school management had failed to remit pension deductions to some of its staff.
Some former staff of the institution who are now retirees had petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against FUTA management over the allegations.
The then teachers of the secondary session of FUTA also sued the management of the school to court.
But the school management through the Deputy Director Corporate Communications Adegbenro Adebanjo while responding to their allegations which they had availed the media described them as “baseless and false.”
He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, nobody has tampered with any funds whatsoever. The allegations, for record purposes, are baseless, false in its entirety and gross misrepresentation of facts with intent to mislead unwary members of the public.”
On the court case which the petitioners had instituted against FUTA, the school spokesman clarified, “This is a case involving the management board of FUTA secondary school and the teachers, Mr. Anein Abraham Omoareabu , Mr. Ezekiel Ojo Akerele, Mr. Foluwaso Ebenezer Akerele and Mr. Samuel Oluwabamise Olajide, on whose behalf the Lawyer who wrote the petition to EFCC dated 30th July 2021 acted. The case has nothing to do with the person of the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure Professor Joseph Fuwape and Chairman of the board of FUTA Secondary School, Professor Deji Ogunsemi.
“The matter predated the assumption of office of Professor Joseph Fuwape as Vice Chancellor in 2017 and Professor Deji Ogun semi as Chairman Board of FUTA Secondary School in 2019.
“It is therefore presumptuous, unkind and mischievous to accuse them falsely in the manner contained in the petition to the EFCC by Olabanjo Ayenakin Esq. acting for the said teachers
“To be sure the matter that has now been disingenuously turned into a petition to the EFCC is before the National Industrial Court in Akure, Ondo State.
“It is pertinent to note that the persons on whose behalf the petition was written had gone to the National Industrial Court and jointly sued Arm Pension Managers Limited, NLPC Pension Fund Administrators Limited, National Pension Commission and FUTA via a suit filed at National Industrial Court, Akure Judicial Pension on 4th March, 2021. Suit No. NICN/AK/15/2021.
“In the suit the names of Professors Fuwape and Ogunsemi did not occur because they are not parties to the suit .
“However, this fact was deliberately hidden from the petition written to the EFCC.
“By law, once a matter is pending before the Court, all parties to the case ought to await the final determination of the Court on the matter. Anything done by any of the parties without obtaining the Court’s permission for same, amounts to contempt of Court in the eyes of the law. Since the parties are already in the process of settling the matter and the case is still pending before the Court, the step taken by the claimant amounts to dishonor of the Court’s process.”
