We never awarded any contract to Oluseyi Oke and Associates; he is out for mischief-OSSCEIla

The management of Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun has denied awarding contract to Oluseyi Oke and Associates, the company that dragged the institution and chairman of its Governing Council, Mr Niyi Akande before the police for breach of contract.

According to the institution, the report of the purported warrant of arrest of Mr Akande was a deliberate attempt to smear the image of the institution, its officials, and that of the highly respected chairman of the governing council.

The management stated that there had never been any contract between the college and Oluseyi Oke and Associates to do any survey job, disclosing the company’s bid for the perimeter survey of the institution was rejected because of its excessive costing.

Media Consultant to the college, Pastor Niyi Kolawole stated this in a press release made available to CityMirrorNews on Tuesday.

Kolawole maintained that contractual dispute between two parties is a civil matter which does not call for intervention of the police, not to talk of issuance of warrant of arrest by a court against any of the parties.

Oluseyi Oke and Associates had petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 11, alleging that the contract which had earlier been awarded to him was fraudulently re-awarded to another contractor without following due process.

According to Kolawole, the governing council’s decision to award the survey contract was based on technical information by college’s full-time professionals employed specifically to guide the council.

With the guidance of the employed professionals, the perimeter survey, the topographic and details survey, and the entire Master Plan of the college was done with less than N6 million, against the N24 million being demanded by Oke for the perimeter survey only.

The press statement reads in part: “The attention of the authorities of Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun has been drawn to a publication in the online edition of The Punch newspaper of Saturday, November 19, 2016, captioned court orders arrest of osun college official over contract.

“We note that the story is a sponsored attempt by a bitter contractor who lost out in a competition for the contract award on the said survey job; a deliberate attempt to smear the image of our institution, its officials, and especially that of the highly respected Governing Council chairman.

“The story is not logical for the following reasons: The write up admitted that the reason given by the college for using another surveyor for its perimeter survey was Oluseyi Oke and Associates’ “excessive costing” , but it ridiculously argued that it was “only the Surveyor-General of the state that have prerogative of costing been a public survey,” and that the costing, however arbitrary it might be, could only be “subject to review by the Surveyor-General of the state being a public survey.” Did the author realise that the College’s enabling law vests the power to prudently manage the College’s resources in the governing council which was expected to pay for the survey, not in the Surveyor-General? Could the college’s ability to pay the cost be a factor before the contract would be awarded by the council?

“Contractual disputes between two parties are civil matters, for which there could be no question of a court issuing an arrest warrant for either of the parties. Therefore, it appears doubtful if the reference in the publication to the involvement of a court was not a mere gimmick to lend to the story a resemblance of being credible. Besides, up to now, no court process whatsoever has been served on the college or on its council chairman.”

The statement added: “As at mid-December 2013, the College’s Director of Works had confirmed in writing that there had never been any contract between the college and Oluseyi Oke and Associates to do any survey job; that if Oke were to do any such job he(director) would be the person to show him the area to be surveyed; but that he had never seen Oke carrying out any survey job for the college.

“Like with all other jobs done by the Niyi Akande-led governing council since it came on board in June 2013, prudence, patriotism and absolute transparency governed the award and execution of the survey work. In any decent society such attributes should attract admiration, gratitude and public appreciation for the council chairman, rather than dirty politicking, blatant lies and attempts at character assassination which disgruntled and corrupt elements associating with people like Oke are employing in futile efforts to impugn the integrity and good reputation of the chairman.

“Records in the college show that Oke’s lawyers had exchanged correspondence with College’s lawyers on the survey contract. Therefore, any reasonable person would have expected Oke to proceed to a court of law if he believed that he had any legal ground for his false claims.

“The provost is the chief executive and chief accounting officer, according to the College’s enabling law; while the registrar, as the secretary to council, keeps all records of the college. Any official information on the affairs of the college should be sought from these principal officers, not from a part-time chairman or any other council member who does not keep College’s files, etc.

“Available records show that both the provost and the registrar have already appropriately supplied the information which the Police requested for on the contract which was duly and transparently awarded by council for the survey of the College’s land. So, what else do Oke and his ilk want from Council chairman Niyi Akande, who does not even reside in Osun State?”