THE chief executive/accounting officer status of the Rector has been practically removed" alleged members of a faction of the Kwara State Polytechnic branch of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) at a news conference penultimate week. There are two factions of the union in the school, following the suspension of its former leader, Comrade Ola Adefila as well as the factionalisation of ASUP at the national level.

The faction making the allegation is headed by Mr A. S. Odetoye, an architect, believed to be loyal to the Adefila group, at the local and national level.

Adetoye, who spoke on behalf of the group, went on: "He (AbdulRaheem) has usurped the power of the council and management as the Rector indicated at our various meetings with him. Across the world, unions exist as pressure groups to agitate for improved welfare for members, making the workplace conducive and possibly the best available around. The leopard cannot change its spots. What AbdulRaheem did at the University of Ilorin as the then Vice-Chancellor is again playing itself out at KWARAPOLY."

The allegations against the school management are legion.

Olatoye listed them as follows:

• reversal of HATTIS 15 and deduction of already earned and spent salaries before our union wrote a SOS letter to Governor Bukola Saraki who ordered that illegal deductions be stopped. Our members are still waiting for the government’s order for our return to HATISS 15 which is paid by two schools- Osun State polytechnics at Iree and Esa Oke established in 1992 and 1995. But KWARAPOLY was established in 1972 and the refund of the deducted salary is yet to be made to our members;

• KWARAPOLY authorities collect money for practicals from students and refuse to remit such to the departments, thereby impeding the smooth conduct of practical classes in places such as IBAS, IOT, IES and HCM. Students pay N1,500 each;

• compulsory collection of hostel fees from students without giving them accommodation until the state government ordered them to refund to the students the illegally collected fee. Only a third of the students have collected the refund till date;

• sudden withdrawal of academic allowances for technologists and their non-recognition as academic staff since February 2005 and the sudden restoration of same in August 2006 when the State House of Assembly and the Ministry of Education indicated their interest to probe the account of the polytechnic. Our members are awaiting the refund of the accumulated allowances of February 2005 to August 2006. Who is fooling who? Where are the millions?

• fraudulent and haphazard handling of our excess work load allowance which remains unacceptable to our members as it affects the instructors, technologists and academic staff;

• purchase of four Peugeot 505 cars for N1million each whereas the market value of each is below N600, 000 and each developed fault after five months and second hand engines bought for the four at N650, 000 each. While this drama was on, the Rector topped them with a second hand Peugeot 406 car at N4.3 million. The car had travelled a distance of 160,000 kilometres before purchase;

• illegal collection of photocopying fees for students’ final year projects at N4 per page and binding same at N250 per booklet without photocopying or binding such projects for three academic sessions. They were sublet to contractors at N2.50 per page for photocopying and N150 per booklet for binding;

• purchase of 1000 academic gowns for N11million and usurpation of the power of the Institute to appoint part time coordinators and HODs;

• high handed and lopsided appointment of the founder of the parallel ASUP as HOD of Purchasing and Supply Department over and above his senior colleagues whereas he belongs to the Business Administration Department;

• impromptu promotion of some academic staff for accreditation purposes and reversal of such to the old status immediately accreditation was over and deliberate and unjust retention of a few godsons who naturally did not deserve such promotions.

But defending his integrity, AbdulKarim told The Nation that the allegations were false and was true to type of those making them.

His words: "If you know me for what I am, you will know that I cannot be a party to the fleecing of students who I also refer to as my children. I am doing this job as if it were my personal business. All their allegations are not true.

"It is not true that accommodation money was collected and not refunded. The first time we let out accommodation to students because they were all living outside the campus and threatened by cultists and other problems, they did not take them because they said their rents were still pending outside. We only made N300,000 that year of the N22million the government gave us to refurbish the hostels and recoup the cost.

"So, the government was not happy with us and refused to give us more money for the next phase.

"We refunded everything we collected for that year. We did not even collect administrative charges from them. We paid N8.9 million back to them at the rate of N4,500 for 1,998 students. Some private developers wanted to work with us on the hostels, but their charges were too high. We had to negotiate with the students before we, as a school, could even charge N4, 500. These people said they would collect N25, 000 per student in a room of six people making N150, 000 per year from one room. The students said they could not pay that and even I myself I cannot encourage my children to pay such fee.

"It is not true that we employed people for accreditation purposes alone. In the first accreditation, there was even a petition from this same group alleging that I employed people from my community. They said I also employed only Moslems.

"They are frustrated people. What they have done is against the conditions of service and if I have to take them up now, they will again run to the media alleging one thing or the other. Anybody can say anything about me. But I try to do things with the fear of God. It was when I came here that I developed high blood pressure. I was the first staff on the list of IOT here and I know the vision we had then. We were able to achieve it to an extent and now that I am back by the grace of God, I want that glory back."

Abdulkarim confirmed the procurement of academic gowns but denied any graft was involved since he could not, as the Rector, approve expenditure above N500,000.

Council, he claimed, approved the purchase, after passing through the due process. He blamed the accusations against the Council Chairman as the product of misunderstanding.

The former Vice-Chancellor, who happened to have been his room mate at Sheffield University while both were doing their Masters programme, he said is stickler for the rules.

"When he came here, he called everybody and, holding the KWARAPOLY Edict and the Conditions of Service in both hands, told us he was going to work with those two; that once you don’t go against them, you are protected", he said in defence of Oba, adding: "It is funny because this was the man who mounted pressure on the governor that led to the stoppage of the deduction of the HATTIS 15 salary problem. Even I, despite our closeness, there was a time I almost resigned because everything I proposed was hauled down until it met very stringent conditions laid down in the books."

AbdulKarim described the HATISS issue as "sheer blackmail" because those affected "are aware of the details."

He said of the matter: "The government set up the committee on the salary issue and directed that they refund excess money they had collected as salary. It was not a pleasant job for me to do. But I had to do that dirty job. They went to court and lost. But the Council Chairman pleaded until government asked us to stop it. But they are now saying we have been asked to refund which is not true. Instead of thanking the government for stopping the deduction, they are still abusing us."

AbdulKarim agreed that the fee collected for practicals have not been fully released to the collecting departments because it serves as an avenue to buoy the school’s internally generated revenue, which is used in augmenting government’s subvention in paying staff salary.