OSCOED, Ila-orangun N200 Million Fraud: Babalola Clears Air, Says Allegations Unfounded, Baseless

The chairman, Governing Council of the Osun State College of Education, Ila-orangun, Elder Peter Babalola has described as baseless and unfounded, the allegation that the council under his watch squandered N200 million within five months of its assumption of office.

Responding to series of allegations by a media report on Wednesday in Osogbo, Elder Babalola said they are all figment of imagination of the originator and a smear campaign against his person.

He said “an Institution that could not sustain accreditation exercise without recourse to borrowing from financial institution cannot be accused of squandering such a humongous amount. The writer should be put to the strictest proof of the allegations.”

As against the reported allegation that the college, under the supervision of the chairman of Council, spent N81 million for accreditation of five courses and obtained N35 million loan approved by the state government on December 6, 2023, Elder Babalola said N71 million was actually approved and spent for the accreditation.

He added that the embattled Provost of the college led-management had earlier projected a sum of N139 million for the exercise before the governing council worked on how the amount was pruned down to N71 million expended for the successful conduct of the exercise.

“It must be emphasized to the public that the accreditation committee headed by the suspended Provost, Prof. Jimoh Atanda Afolabi did not spend the sum of Eighty million for the accreditation exercise but rather the sum of 71 million was spent for the exercise.

“To make the matter worse off, the suspended Provost and the outgone Bursar, Dr. Rasheed Olanrewaju Oyedeji had earlier projected that the sum of N139 million would be needed for the exercise” Babalola said.

The chairman maintained that the council should rather be commended than being condemned after the successful completion of the exercise considering what it achieved.

He alleged the suspended provost of sabotaging efforts of the council in raising funds for the accreditation exercise which led the governing council to ensure that resources were pull together from the college various accouts and the raising of a loan of N35 million from a financial institution.

He said “the public needs to be aware that the sum of 35 million Naira mentioned in the report was the totality of the fund obtained from the financial institution to augument the funds needed for the accreditation exercise.”

Reacting to the allegation in the newspaper report that the council have been meeting weekly since its inauguration, the chairman said they have only met 3 times and statutory allowance was paid twice.

He said “It is not true that the council have been meeting weekly since our inauguration. The council only met only 3 times and the statutory allowance of members were only paid twice. The sum being #40,000 per meeting for the chairman and #30,000 for members and this frequency was for sitting allowance.

Elder Babalola said that the council members must ordinarily be commended for their selfless efforts put in place during the period of the accreditation exercise.

On the allegation that the sum of 4 million which was paid to the account of one Wonuola Akinlaja and which was later moved into the account of the council Chairman, Elder Babalola who refuted the allegation, said such fund was never paid into the account.

The chairman of council said he never demanded for money from the management for any purpose whatsoever as alleged in the media report.

He also debunked the claim that the sum of one million, seven hundred and eighty five Naira, the money which was meant for logistics meant for the accreditation exercise, was ever paid into the chairman’s account.

However, Elder Babalola reiterated his committee to ensuring a steady growth and development of the college, one of the reasons for his personal contribution of scholarship for the first one thousand students to register in the institution.

He said the council under his watch and in line with the vision of the visitor to the college, Governor Ademola Adeleke would continue to ensure that the college grows in leaps and bounds.