By Emma Amaize

WARRI- Tension increased at Federal University of Petroleum Resources, FUPRE, Effurun, Delta State, weekend, following purported counter-directives by Minister of Education against the decision of the Governing Council, sending the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Tunde Alabi and Registrar, Dr. L. Onwuka on their accumulated leave.

Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU; Senior Staff Association of Nige-rian Universities, SSANU, and Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, have separately expressed their objection to the directives of the minister, with workers threatening to resist the move.

Meanwhile, an Investi-gation Panel constituted by the recently-dissolved Governing Council of the university, has unearthed how some top officials perpetrated fraud and mismanaged the institution.

Two of the affected officials were sent on leave while the issues were being investigated. They were yet to be recalled.

FUPRE management, in a letter to Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, said it was a breach of the laws governing the university administration for the said principal officers, who are legitimately observing their accumulated leave as directed by the Governing Council, to be asked by the minister to resume duties.

Acting Registrar, Mrs. E. Gbagi, said in the letter: “The purported directives of the minister will serve the university community, its staff and students no useful purpose given the tensed atmosphere in the university at present.”

The university is running behind schedule in academic calendar and none of its academic programmes had been accredited by the National Universities Commission, NUC.

The four-man panel, headed by Dr. Love Ineh, which submitted its report to the council, observed that “there is a general lack of sense of direction in the conduct of the affairs of the university. This had affected the university negatively.”

The panel said a cabal hoodwinked the Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Alabi on many issues and unilatera-lly ran the university without recourse to the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Isaac Osazuwa, alleging that a contract for N21 million for rehabili-tation of the university access road was signed by an official without recourse to Prof Osazuwa.

According to the report, one of the affected officials allegedly diverted N1.524 million belonging to a contractor into a private bank account.

, despite a written instruction by the contractor to pay the money into the account of the company.

A bursary staff was found to be operating business in dollars with a Nigerian-based company, after the Vice Chancellor was misguided to approve money in dollars for local transactions. Besides hijacking contracts won by contractors, the clique paid approved money in dollars and naira into their personal accounts.