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ASUU, Nigerian govt resume hostilities over IPPIS, governing councils
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and the federal government may be heading for another showdown over an acceptable salary payment platform, as well as the constitution of new governing councils for the universities.
Last year, the Nigerian government announced it has exempted federal-owned tertiary institutions, including universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics, from the use of the Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS) for the payment of their staff salaries and allowances.
The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, who announced the development while addressing State House correspondents following the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting, said the new directive was to take immediate effect.
Mamman then said that the FEC observed that vice-chancellors of universities did not need to abandon their work to visit Abuja to process the salaries of their personnel as currently obtained.
However, DAILY POST findings showed that five months after President Bola Tinubu’s administration made the declaration, it’s yet to implement the new policy.
This is even as the Federal Government is said to have commenced plans to pay the salaries of lecturers in tertiary institutions through the Government Integrated Financial Management System, GIFMIS.
DAILY POST recalls that as an alternative to IPPIS, the union had suggested the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, for their payment instead.
The development implies that the government has ditched the UTAS proposed by the lecturers.
A lecturer at the University of Abuja told DAILY POST that nothing has changed in terms of the payment platform through which they receive salaries.
According to him, last month’s salary was paid via IPPIS.
He, however, noted that an addition of the word ‘new’ to IPPIS was the only change noticed when they received notification for payment of salary.
He said: “Yes, we are still being paid with IPPIS. They just added ‘new’ to it.
“That’s, if you get the alert, you will see ‘new IPPIS’. I think it’s the same platform. It’s just a matter of nomenclature. They just added ‘new’ to the IPPIS, but it is still the same.
“It’s also part of the agitation. I read a report today that they are going back to GIMFS. But it is just a normal report that they do write just like they said last year that they were withdrawing lecturers’ salary payment from IPPIS.
“Even the National Assembly said something to that effect, but it has never happened till now.”
In a message to DAILY POST, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, ASUU branch chairperson, Comrade Nobert Oyibo Eze, confirmed that the federal government was yet to effect the announcement it made about ASUU exemption from IPPIS.
“No, it hasn’t,” Eze said, indicating that no changes have been effected.
When pressed to speak more about the matter, Eze told our correspondent to reach him at a later time.
DAILY POST recalls that the deployment of IPPIS by the government was one of the contentious issues that led to prolonged industrial strike between the ASUU and the federal government, lasting about eight months in 2022.
ASUU had then on every occasion accused the government of tampering with the autonomy enjoyed by the universities.
It accused the office of the Head of Service of the Federation of taking over the work of the university governing councils and vice-chancellors.
The university workers had also complained of irregularities in the payment of its members’ emoluments, as some lecturers accused the government of shortchanging them.
Similarly, the University of Jos branch of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Tuesday called for immediate removal of its members from IPPIS as directed by the FEC since 2023.
The union also reiterated its call on the Federal Government to implement the nine demands presented to it.
The call was made by the UNIJOS branch of the Union during a peaceful protest in Jos, the state capital on Tuesday.
Presenting their letter of demands to the Vice Chancellor of the University, after a peaceful protest, Chairperson of ASUU-UNIJOS branch, Dr Jurbe Molwus, decried the inability of the government to fulfill the agreements reached with the union over the years.
ASUU demanded the immediate release of the Revitalisation Fund, immediate payment of salaries of members excluded or omitted from the payroll of the IPPIS.
“We demand the immediate removal of ASUU from IPPIS as directed by the Federal Executive Council since October, 2023.
“We call for the reinstatement of the Governing Councils of public universities that were illegally removed by the Bola Tinubu led government, in particular those whose tenure has not elapsed; they are free to constitute those who have exhausted their tenure,” the union demanded.
Another major headache as three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators from Kebbi, on Tuesday, defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to reports, their letters of defection were read separately on the floor of the chamber by Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, who presided over the plenary.
The senators are: Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central); Yahaya Abdullahi (Kebbi North) and Garba Maidoki (Kebbi South).
Details…
The Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, May 8, 2025, secured the conviction and sentence of the duo of Babatunde Peter Olaitan and Tobilola Olamide to six months imprisonment each for mutilation of the Naira notes.
They were jailed by Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The convicts were arraigned on a separate one-count charge of tampering with the Naira notes and spraying, to which they each pleaded “guilty”.
The charge against Olaitan reads: “That you, BABATUNDE PETER OLAITAN, on 8th April 2025, at 23, Macdonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, whilst dancing during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N200 (Two Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying it, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”
The charge against Olamide reads:”That you, TOBILOLA OLAMIDE A.K.A TobiNation, on 8th April 2025, at 23 Macdonald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, whilst dancing during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N200 (Two Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying it, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”
In view of their pleas, prosecution counsel, C.C. Okezie and H.U.KofarNaisa, respectively, reviewed the facts of the cases through Ibrahim Bukar, an investigative officer with the EFCC.
In his evidence, Bukar specifically told the court that the Commission, on April 10, 2025, generated an intelligence-driven investigation on TikTok, where Olaitan, also known as TDollar, was seen spraying Naira notes.
He also told the court that “Upon the approval of the intelligence by the Zonal Director, a letter of investigation was sent to the defendant, requesting him to make a statement regarding the video.
“The defendant reported to the Special Operations Team, SOT, on May 5, 2025 and his statement was recorded under caution.
“He stated that he went to a night club on April 8, 2025 and met some of his fans sharing money.
“ He also said that a fan, in the process, gifted him a bundle of N200 notes, which he sprayed on some of his other fans.
“He was shown a video of him spraying the money and he made a statement regarding it.”
Consequently, the defendants’ extrajudicial statements and video recordings were rendered and admitted in evidence by the court.
Okozie and KofarNaisa, therefore, respectively prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendants accordingly.
Justice Owoeye convicted and sentenced both Olaitan and Olamide to six months imprisonment each, with an option of fine in the sum of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira.
The convicts’ road to the Correctional Centre started when they were arrested by operatives of the EFCC for Naira abuse. They were charged to court and convicted.
The Supreme Court has ordered the immediate remand of Lagos-based businessman and socialite, Fred Ajudua, in connection with a $1.43 million fraud case dating back over three decades.
In a unanimous ruling delivered on Friday, the apex court overturned the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had earlier granted Ajudua bail.
The court held that the appellate court erred in its judgment and directed that Ajudua be returned to correctional custody without delay.
It was learned that Ajudua is now in hiding following the court’s decision.
“Ajudua escaped after the Supreme Court ordered that he should be returned to prison,”, a source disclosed and its currently unclear if he is still in Nigeria.
The case, which has spanned more than 30 years, stems from allegations that Ajudua defrauded a German company of $1.43 million through an advance fee fraud scheme—commonly referred to as a “419” scam in Nigeria.
A letter dated August 26, 1993, from the Embassy of the State of Palestine accused Ajudua of obtaining the funds under false pretence from one Ziad Abu Zalaf, a Palestinian businessman based in Germany. The funds were allegedly siphoned under the pretext of business transactions with Nigerian government agencies.
It was gathered that Ajudua and his accomplice, Mr. Joseph Ochunor, fraudulently collected sums of $268,000 and $225,000 from Zalaf on April 2 and May 12, 1993, respectively. They forged official documents, including receipts from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, to make the transactions appear legitimate.
Following an extensive investigation, a 12-count charge was filed against Ajudua before the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja. Initially arraigned before Justice Josephine Oyefeso, the case was later reassigned to Justice Mojisola Dada following a refiling of charges.
Ajudua’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo (SAN), later approached the Court of Appeal, where a panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba granted bail on the grounds of constitutional rights and allowed the businessman to continue under his existing bail terms.
However, In its decision on appeal number SC/CR/51/2019, the Supreme Court, through Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme, ruled that the Court of Appeal acted outside its jurisdiction by granting bail after striking out Ajudua’s brief of argument for incompetence. The apex court held that any judgment or relief stemming from such a defective brief was legally void.
The Supreme Court further ordered that trial resume before Justice Dada of the Lagos State High Court without further delay.
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