Alleged Financial Misappropriation Tears Federal Poly, Ede Apart

By Segun Ojo

Financial misappropriation running into several millions of naira is currently rocking the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State.

Investigation conducted by CityMirrorNews revealed that the misappropriation has resulted in disagreement and disquiet among the top management officers of the institution.

It was learnt that because of the magnitude of the financial misappropriation, the registrar of the institution, O A Ogunleye have declined endorsing or originating transactions involving money, a development that forced the newly appointed Rector, Dr. Adekolawole Johhson-Edaogbogun directing the Director of Administration and Establishment Affairs Officer, Elder E A Aruwajoye to take up the responsibilities of the Registrar when it come to new transactions involving money.

One of the transactions causing ripples in the Polytechnic is the renovation of private residence of the new Rector with the institution’s funds despite the monetization policy of the federal government on such matter. It was learnt that all such matters have been included in the monetization policy payable to principal officers.

It was gathered that on assumption of office, the Rector, Johnson Edaogbogun ordered a total renovation of his private residence gulping several million of naira. It was further gathered paints and other materials used to train students in skill entrepreneurship acquisition department were also used for the renovation.

Consequently, the Bursar of the Polytechnic, R O Bababunmi demanded for explanation from the Institution’s Director of Works and Services for the payment for the job certificate issued to the contractor that handled the renovation.

The Bursar in a letter dated 9th January, 2018 with reference number FPE/BUR/W&S/5.04/486 tittled: Re: Job Payment Certificate, sent to Director of Works and Services demanding for explanation to justify the payment of contract for renovation of Rector’s private residence.

According to Bursar, “going through all documents attached to the certificate, it was observed that the work relates to maintenance/renovation of private residence house of Rector, In my view, it is only the official residence of the Rector’s/Lodge which is government property that could be maintained or renovated with government fund. This is for your re-consideration.

It was further gathered that over N20m was spent for the award of contract for the procurement of brand new 508 SEDAN EXECUTIVE AUTOMATIC PEUGEOT CAR for the Chairman of the Governing Council of the institution, Professor Nasir without due process on August 2017.

Record available indicated that the contract for the procurement of the car was awarded to LEAWAX MULTI-LINKS SERVICES located at No 27, Isha Kaita Road, Kaduna State.

It was also discovered that some leadership of Polytechnic’s unions including representatives of Works department, bursary, Internal Audit, Registry were paid various sum of money ranging from N84,000 to N218,000 to embark on tour to some Polytechnics in the southwest between 8th and 17thNovember 2017 to understudy whether they are implementing unapproved migration allowances to their workers.

It would be recalled that the implementation of unapproved migration allowance to workers at the Federal Polytechnic, Ede had generated series of crisis between the management and workers as labour unions insisted that this unapproved allowance should be paid to them.

The migration allowance has since 2013 being paid to workers on CONTIS 01 to 11, a development that had made it difficult for the management of the institution to muster the necessary fund for re-accreditation of all the courses and programmes of the school which was done last in year 2012.

It was gathered that workers of Federal Polytechnic across the country, Academic Staff of Polytechnic (ASUP); Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnic, (SSANIP) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) had in 2013 fought the federal government for approval of migration allowance; which the then Minister of Education and now Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike approved but the approval did not have the backing of Salary and Wages Commission, the budget office and other stakeholders in the education ministry.

The unions had forced school’s management to pay the allowance to them and when it becomes extremely difficult to continue with the payment, the management used the substantial part of its Internally General Revenue (IGR) to settle the payment of the migration allowance to workers.

At a point, the former Acting Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. A O Aja was issued a query by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) and warned him against honouring the payment which the commission described as illegal.