by crossriverwatch admin
There are indications that the feuding Senators of the National Association of Cross River State Students, NACRISS World Wide, may have decided to sheath the sword and allow peace to rein.
Senators from the feuding factions in the second plenary session of the Union held recently at the old Senate Chamber, University of Calabar, UNICAL reinstated the impeached Senate President, Sen. Francis Onun Obono whose impeachment had caused sharp divisions within the ranks of the senators.
His reinstatement came after he tendered a letter of apology to the satisfaction of the 16 senators present in the seating.
The senators in their first plenary session had degenerated to a free for all fight with most of them throwing fisticuffs over the process that led to the impeachment of Francis Onun Obono.
In a related development, the senators accused the President of the Union, Comrade Philomina Agweye Odah of misappropriating the N900,000 subvention the union received from the Cross River State Government.
The accusation was contained in a petition filed to the Senate jointly by the Financial Secretary, Comrade Ita Edemanwan and Treasurer, Comrade Oyama Otandiri.
The petitioners accuse the NACRISS World Wide President of collecting their accumulated monthly subvention and disbursing same without prior consent of her cabinet members or those whose offices are constitutionally in charge of such duties.
They also accuse the President of going alone on the 13th of January, 2014 “not just to collect the money but to disburse as well. The subvention which is N 900, 000 is meant to cover from October to December last year (2013).”
The petitioners noted that even the January 2014 subvention has been released to the union’s President and to their knowledge, the Senate has already signed and collected their own share of the money, but the President is allegedly ‘hoarding the share of the money that is meant for other executives in the guise of planning for a special project’ which according to Edemanwan and Oyama, her fellow Executive Members, don’t know about.
They wondered why the President will plan and embark on a project unilaterally without her exco members and approval from the Senate.
They prayed the Senate to wade into the matter urgently because according to them, the entire executive members are aggrieved and might resolve to self help warning that their petition is not motivated by anything other than to ensure more crisis do not ensue.
When CrossRiverWatch contacted the President, Comrade Philomina Agweye Odah, she explained the sharing formula that was adopted in disbursing the largesse: “Each normal executive member went home with N30, 000, the Secretary took N65, 000, Vice President N75, 000, and me the President went home with N120, 000. The Senate received N150, 000 and the Union is owing me because I put in my personal money to get the money out, there are documents in regards to the said N900,000.
“They are just looking for a means to fight. The Treasurer said I should handover the whole money to her to disburse on her own then I questioned how she could disburse funds on her own to her discretion, its not done anywhere. So she got angry and said no fund will be disbursed; so I worked closely with the Financial Secretary in consultation with the Treasurer on how the money will be shared and every other person came and sign their money from my office”.
The Senators promised to take action on the petition.
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