Petroleum varsity under probe – Council

The Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council of University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, Delta State, Prof Shehu Abdullahi Zuru has disclosed that the council has embarked on forensic probe into the finances of the varsity from 2004 to date.

Prof Zuru who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja said the council is not obsessive about the past but wants to know about the finances of the institution and what has happened in the past that perhaps was responsible for the stunted growth of the university.

“We are not being necessarily obsessive with the past but we believe very strongly that you have to interrogate the past in order to secure the future. We believed that we should have a clear picture of the finances of the university,” he said.

He said the council also instituted a debt recovery panel against contractors as it was discovered that some have abandoned the project half way after the university had paid them certain amounts.

He noted that they have also embarked on sensitization on what the university is doing and to assure the stakeholder that going forward the present council will not leave anybody behind, saying, “We recognized them as veritable development partners.”

“The era of waiting for university to receive funding and there will be scrambling for the piece of cake is over, we believe they have a role to play, they should mobilize and leverage on their contacts both at the state and federal level to bring development to the university because the university belongs to the region,” he added.