80bn AGF Loot: ASSU Wants EFCC To Probe IPPIS

Following the arrest of the Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over alleged N80 billion fraud. Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has urged the EFCC to also beam its searchlight on the administration of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, managed by the embattled AGF.

Chairperson of ASUU, Federal University Otuoke, FUO, Bayelsa State, Dr. Socrates Ebo, who made the call in a statement in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, while reacting to the arrest of the AGF, said it was no longer news that both the Auditor-General of the Federation and the Head of Service had separately decried the corruption in IPPIS.

His words: “Since the deployment of the payment platform, no lecturer can say for certain what his salary is. They deduct what they like from the salary and pay what they like to whom they like.

“It had been severally alleged that the payment platform sometimes generates ‘audio’ personnel on the payroll. Someone who could allegedly pilfer N80 billion from public coffers cannot possibly pay Nigerian workers their due salaries with sincerity.

“The AGF is the manager of the IPPIS. EFCC should extend its searchlight to the administration of the payment platform. I believe it will make interesting finds.”