By Ogar Monday
The Students Union Government (SUG) President of the University of Calabar, Comrade Ekpo Tete has described as untrue, his suspension over alleged embezzlement of unions’ funds by the Students Union Parliament.
Ekpo Tete who spoke to CrossRiverWatch recently said that the process of his alleged suspension and the allegations holds no water, as he has forgiven members of the Senate who he sees as his comrades.
His words, “The allegations levelled against me are all false, and again the process of the alleged purported suspension did not follow due process. If there is any petition against an executive member, he should be served a copy of the petition and invited to come and defend himself or herself, with the notification coming at least 48hrs before the Senate sitting. Even in the court of law, the right to fair hearing is guaranteed before the passing of judgement. In this case I was not called for any investigation or enquiry, I was not served any letter and I am still yet to even get the purported suspension letter.
“I have even heard from some Senators that there was nothing like suspension and that the House was in rancour when the Scribe of the Senate brought out a paper that a petition has been written against me from an unknown organization and signed by just one person, which was not. And the maze, symbolising authority was not there.” He explained.
Furthermore, he said “They are getting it all wrong. I only told people that I have been in office for eight months and have only collected fuel budget of one month which is N25,000 (Twenty five thousand naira), but am running the car everyday serving the students with my personal money. There are times when the security vehicle will have challenge and I use my official car to remedy it, while I fuel it myself. I was talking about fuel budget not other things.
“Now the allegation that I collected over 80% of the budget, the award night money of 900,000 and DSTV subscription money of over 700,000 was given to me on the 28th of March which was on Monday and the alleged suspension happened on the 30th. The funds were released on the 28th and the purported suspension happened on the 30th. How true can that be,” he questioned.
He added that he was seriously working with the management of the University to tackle challenges facing students as street lights have been installed all within the school, the procurement of over 3000 beds and other programs that are yet to materialize.
Concluding he urged members of the union not to be distracted by the purported suspension.