By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Management of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State, has dismissed allegations of misappropriation of a Personnel Cost summing up to N1 billion.

This is coming on the heels of a protest by staff members of the university who accused the management of misappropriating monies meant for the payment of over 1,000 staff members.

In his reaction, the University Bursar, Mr. Gozie Egwuatu, said that only 120 staff members were fully captured, and the federal government promised to complete the process but failed to do so.

He said: ?Actually, in 2019 and 2020, there were some employments made, and the federal government had not introduced the IPPS, but there were capturings up to December 2020.

?Those employment processes were at the university level, so the capturing was not fully completed, and the federal government said we should go through the Head of Service of the Federation.?

Egwuatu explained that the university made several applications, and it wasn?t until late 2023 that it received approval for only 120 staff members, with the condition that 100 would be academic staff and 20 non-academic staff.

?We are still making strong representations before the federal government, as well as members of the National Assembly who raised motions and had resolutions regarding the fate of the staff,? he said.

Concerning the N1 billion Personnel Cost, Egwuatu clarified that it was misconstrued as payment for the 1,000 staff members who were not fully captured. Instead, the federal government explained that the sum was for the payment of arrears for the 2025 full staff of the institution.

?That was the position because we thought it was for them until the federal government made that explanation.

?Ever since, we have been making efforts to make the federal government complete the full capturing and ultimately pay them. The university management is aware of the plight of our staff,? he said.

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