The National Universities Commission (NUC) and Committee of Vice Chancellors (VCs) have denied bribery and extortion allegations against the House of Representatives ad hoc committee probing job racketeering and mismanagement of IPPIS in Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

The acting Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Chris Maiyaki, and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jos (UniJos), Prof. Isiah Tanko, denied the allegation when they jointly appeared before the committee in Abuja on Friday, September 1, 2023.

Speaking on the issue reported by an online medium which alleged that the committee collected money from NUC and VCs for soft landing over the probe, Maiyaki said the report was baseless.

“The publication is regrettable, whatever the substance is, we wish that this does not impugn the partnership we have with the lawmakers which we should be promoting,” he stated.

Maiyaki said the universities occupied a special place in the life of any nation, urging the lawmakers and the universities to come together to create a game changer for the country.

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On his part, Tanko, who represented the Chairman of the Committee of VCs, Prof. Lilian Salami, said they read the publication, adding that the VCs were not part of the allegation.

He said: “We read the disturbing publication and I can say that the VCs were not part of that and we did not provide any bribe to anybody,

“We all dispersed from the committee investigative hearing as soon as we finished the last time we appeared before you.

“Soliciting money for bribes is out of context and not true, the reporter did not find out the fact. We have hope and confidence in this ad hoc committee.”

He said more than five programmes of the University of Jos were in danger of being dis-accredited because of lack of manpower, adding: “We were looking up to the committee to correct that.”

The chairman of the ad hoc committee, Yusuf Gagdi, stated that the publication was sponsored to divert the attention of the members from finding out the deep-rooted “evil” that existed in public sectors.

Gagdi said: “It is not even our mandate to investigate the publication by Premium Times but to investigate alleged racketeering in MDAs.

“The investigating authorities like the ICPC and EFCC have been given the mandate to investigate those allegations and the account number.”

The Star