N80bn ‘fraud’: ASUU mocks Accountant-General, asks FG to discard IPPIS

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday urged the Federal Government to discard the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) being used for the payment of federal workers’ salaries.

ASUU was reacting to Monday’s arrest of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over alleged money laundering and diversion of N80bn.

The union urged the EFCC to carry out a thorough investigation, take Idris to court and pursues his case to a logical conclusion.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an exclusive interview with Daily

Trust yesterday, warned that the case should not be covered up, saying “corrupt people deserve punishment in line with this administration’s vision.”

He said: “We’ve said it over and over again that IPPIS is a fraud. We’ve also said that the Accountant-General office is a fraud, and they’re just using IPPIS to relocate all the fraud activities to one centre which is the Accountant-General Office and we have been vindicated. That is our position.

“This IPPIS, I can tell you as we speak, that many of our members have not been paid for 13 months, 8 months, 9 months but they are telling the government that they are using it to control corruption.”

Meanwhile The Centre for Media, Policy and Accountability (CMPA) yesterday called for Idris’ speedy prosecution.

CMPA, in a statement yesterday by its Director of Communications, Outreach and Advocacy, Ibrahim Uba Yusuf, said: “It’s important to note that the arrest of the AGF attests to the series of complaints and whistleblowing that the office which controls the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) has not only centralized, but become the culvert of corruption”.