Date Published: 05/10/10
26 th January, 2010.
The President of The senate,
Federal Republic of Nigeria
National Assembly Complex,
Abuja.
Re – Victimisation and Persecution for giving information to Law Enforcement Agents
INTRODUCTION
My name is Akeju Joeph Babatunde. I am the immediate pst bursar of Yaba College of Technology and a former Director of Finance and Accounts in Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
I am a chartered accountant and a member of Institute of chartered management accountants London (CIMA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (CITN). I have been member of these noble professional bodies for over a period of 25years within this period there has not been a single indictment touching on my integrity and honesty with regards to fiscal and financial related issues.
I had in the past embarked on series of concerted efforts to oppose in concrete terms the monumental misappropriation, siphoning and embezzlement of the funds, resources and assets of the Yaba college of Technology by the former Rector of the Yaba College of Technology in person of Mr. Olubunmi Owoso vacated the office in December 2009.
Ironically it is on record that Mr. Olubunmi Owoso and his cronies were never no doubt of my competence, integrity and transparency as contained in the letters of Mr. Owoso dated 20 th of July 2004 and that of Mrs. F. F. Taiwo the then Registrar, Yaba College of Technology dated the 29 th July 2004 respectively. The declarations as contained in these letters were to placate me to withdraw a letter dated the 14 th of July 2004 addressed to the then Honourable Minister of Education calling on him to make a critical review of my work and performance and if found wanting to direct the law enforcement agent to persecute me. I took this position because of the threat of Mr. Owoso and his cronies resulting into blackmail, victimization, persecution and even attempt at my life. Mr. Owoso and his cronies succeeded in making me withdraw this letter to the then Honourable Minister of Education.
Further Development
I was appointed the Director of Accounts and Finance in Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on 16 th October 2005 to 17 th December 2006. I took a leave of absence as Bursar from Yaba College of Technology to take up this national assignment.
On my return to the college I discovered that there were massive rot in the financial system of the school and that the Rector Mr. Olubunmi Owoso from available evidence had enshrined corruption wastage and financial recklessness as a way of life in the college.
In my capacity as the college bursar, I reported my findings to the various administrative authorities expected to reprimand the Rector for the alleged financial recklessness, but they refused to question him on the proprietary or otherwise of his various unjustified financial escapade. Thus the Rector was empowered to wage a war of attrition against me for daring to complain on all his financial recklessness.
Disclosure To EFCC, ICPC and Anti-Fraud Unit of Police.
In an attempt to run for my life against the persecution of Mr. owoso and his cronies, I have to run to the law enforcement agent and disclose to them the reason for any persecution. Aside this as a Nigerian citizen I have a right to perform my civic responsibility in exposing to the anti-graft agencies the various financial crimes prevalent in the college and known to me in my official capacity as the then college bursar. As a result of these I wrote the anti-graft agencies that is the EFCC the ICPC and the Anti-Fraud Unit of the Police. Some of the specific complaint made to these bodies are: -
(1) That the financial transaction of the college in year 2006 (when I was on leave of absence) received a severe indictment from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation as it affected the sum of N119,477,232 discovered during the audit of year 2006 being the unretired advance of staff. This amount was the highest in Nigeria among the Federal Polythecnics with similar situations. A large proportion of this amount were granted for the execution of capital projects in 2006 funded from internally generated revenue (IGR). This is a rather bizarre practice.
(2) The Rector, My advice and disapproval The Rector allowed and facilitated the payment for diesel that was not supplied to the college. Since the 11,000 litres of fuel amounting to the sum of N1,067,000 was purportedly supplied on a Sunday without the knowledge of and in the absence of personals from the college store, audit and security unit that ordinarily would confirm the delivery or otherwise of the product.
(3) Inlfation of the cost of construction of public toilet which was actually through direct labour system alleged for cost N9,365,780.
(4) Reliabillitation of a tiny strip of road in front of the college female hostel alleged to have cost N9,112,375.
(5) Exaggerated cost of completing the students hostel.
This is the need to carry out a comprehensive audit of this area where well over N17 million has gone down the drain.
(6) The 1.5MVA Generator
As at the time of writing the petition, the college was in dispute with the Academic staff Union of Nigeria Polytechnic (ASUP) on the generator which has been installed for more than eight months without functioning properly. The various reports being presented to the panel by the college management now on the generator were not in existence as at the time of writing my petition. However, since it is =claimed that these reports are prepared and experts has certified the generator as new and genuine there is need for those making such claims to provide answer to the following questions:
· Where is the test certificate of the generator?
· Where was the test carried out?
· Where is the test record of the generator?
· What is the serial no?
· What is the model of the generator?
· What is the of manufacture?
· What is the source of purchase?
· Where is the manual?
As at the time I blew the whistle on the condition of this generator the situation was horrible.
(7) College Vehicles
In February/March 2007, the Rector Mr. Olubunmi Owoso used college money to buy two Toyota Camry supposed to be used during the WAPOGA money was not used to buy these vehicles which therefore means that the vehicles were college vehicles. He and his cronies have taken over these vehicles movement from 2005 to 2009 will disclose the monumental fraud in appropriating public vehicles for the personal belonging of his cronies and himself.
(8) Spending of Personnel Cost to fund Overhead Expenditures
The personnel grant is specifically given by the Federal Government to pay full time staff working on full time programme. It is not meant to:
· Fund overhead expenditure
· Fund part time commercial programme
· Fund sandwich programmes
· Fund part time commercial affiliated programmes
· Fund payment for minor or major contracts
The part time, the affiliated and the sandwich commercial programmes are set up to be self-financing and to generate surplus for augmenting the overhead grants given to the college and fund the minor and major contracts funded from internally generated programmes. This has been the practice of the college until Mr. Olubunmi Owoso (the Rector) assumed office. We use to have credit balances in all our internally generated programmes account such as:
· Student Account (for full time school fees)
· Part Time programme Account ( for part-time programme fees)
· Secondary School Account
· Staff (Primary) school Account
· Guest House account
· Consult Account
The college used to be financially buoyant up to 31 st Dec 2001. As soon as Mr. Olubunmi Owoso took over the mantle as the Rector of Yaba College of Technology he pounced on the savings of over N110 million naira from IGR left by his predecessor Chief (Mrs.) F.A . Odugbesan. Within six months the whole savings vanished. This Rector is averse to prudent financial management and hostile to financial controls. He is ready to circumvent genuine financial control through cunning maneuvering. For example the preparation, approval and implementation of working budget was aborted by the Rector during the financial year of 2006. this is the reason why the college is in the present financial problem which has now resulted to application of personnel grant to fund overhead expenses, to fund payment of minor and major contractors. The contractors were paid from personnel grant via a process whereby money is first transferred to overhead account from personnel grant account after which the money in the overhead account is then used to pay the contractors.
Mismanagement of College Guest House
In year 2005, the managers of the college guest house Messrs Academy Hotels Ltd was disengaged because of the irreconcilable crisis between the directors of the company. The lease between the company (Academy Hotels) and the college which was approved by the Governing Council of Yaba College of Technology was revocated by the college. The assets of the company was left behind in the guest house premises upon the said revocation of the lease agreement. The company asked for a compensation of about N 28 million for the assets left behind. The college agreed to pay the sum of N7 million for this claim.
From the period of eviction of the Academy Hotels to February 2008 the Guest House was being managed by the staff recruited by the college for that purpose. The return to the college purse was an average of about N 700,000 per month after payment of all the staff salaries and all relevant expenses including the repairs and renewal of the facilities.
Some times in the month of February 2007 a new arrangement was put in place to improve on the benefits accruing to the college and give the guest house some autonomy in the running of the place. Thus it was agreed that the sum of N 800,000 per month should be paid by the staff manager to the college. The N 800,000 payable and paid by the staff manager was a net income to the college while the staff managers were responsible for payment of all expenses including all the day to day running expenses and all the relevant capital expenditures. By then, the sum of N 5 million out of the N 7 million payable to Academy Hotels was still unpaid. It was presumed that the N 800,000 to be paid per month will be accumulated for a while and used to settle the 5 million due to academy Hotels after which the college can be applying the subsequent receipts to augment its overhead grant. The staff management team of the guest house continuously fulfilled the payment of this N 800,000 per month to the college from March 2007 up till 28 th February 2008.
As from 1 st of March 2008, the Rector disbanded this management and unilaterally gave the management of the guest house to a company owned by Mr. Kayode Jacob who pays a monthly rent of N312,500 to the College in contrast to N800,000 obeing paid to the college by the arrangement disbanded by the former Rector Mr. Olubunmi Owoso.
Mismanagement of The Yaba Tech Primary and secondary Schools
Mr. Olubunmi Owoso inherited the Yaba College of Technology Primary and Secondary Schools from his predecessors in office. The two schools were two of the sources where substantial revenue is being earned by the college as a source of internally generated revenue. The schools are by tradition managed by the college committee. During the tenureship of Mr. Owoso, he did not give this committee free hand to run the schools neither did he choose competent committee members rather he chose his incompetent coronies who grounded the primary school financially up to the extent that the schools which were financially buoyant could no longer meet its day to day running expenses including payment of staff salaries. All these happened as from late 2005 onwards, when I was away on leave of absence to FAAN. He did not listen to nor even take the expert advise on financial matters given by the woman who acted for me while I was away on leave of absence.
Hence he and his cohorts collapsed the finance of the two schools. When this happened, it was then that the staff of the schools agitated for payments of their salaries, allowances and pensions deductions from the college personnel account. An escape route for the Rector and his management team was to declare that the staff of the primary and secondary schools are not Yaba College of Technology staff and could therefore not be paid from personnel account of the college. Despite the fact that the college employed them, gives them identity cards signed by the college Registrar, collect all the monies generated by the two schools and apply substantial part of it to award contracts, etc, the staff of the two schools are still called non college staff by Mr. Owoso and his cronies. A thorough investigation of the finances of the primary and secondary school will show how the former Rector Mr. Owoso diverted the school monies to other means that led to the crisis which is still under EFCC investigations up till now.
Adultrated Position
The facts contained in my arious write ups on the financial recklessness of the former Rector Mr. Olubunmi Owoso were as at then. He is aware of this petition and have (since till the date of his exit from office as Rector) taken various subterranean steps to substantially alter the positions of what I reported to the various anti-graft agencies. For example he completely annexed the college bursary after my exit as the college bursar. He ensured that no substantive bursar was appointed while a substantive registrar was appointed to fill the vaccum created by the exit of the then Registrar who vacated office the same time with me the then Bursar. He single handedly appointed the following consecutively to occupy the post of Ag Bursar after my exit
· Mr. F. T. Onitilo
· Mr. F. A. Kayode
· Mr. Olu Ibirogba
Each of these officers believed that they get to the post of Ag Bursar on the benevolence and mercy of Mr. Owoso and decided to do everything to cover the rots complained about by me. Aside this under each of these men as Acting Bursar hand picked by Mr. Owoso, a lot of rots involving financial improprieties occurred in the college.
It is therefore very possible that things may not be exactly the same as at the time of this investigation with what was on the ground when I wrote my petition. He and his cohorts have taken the advantage of the time lag to substantially alter the position of things. Nevertheless I am sure that a thorough investigation will still be able to discover most of the alleged malpractices and many more not mentioned.
Victimisation And Persecution
For levying accusation of misapplication, misappropriation, mismanagement and illegal virement of government funds against Mr. Olubunmi Owoso and his cohort he has viciously attacked, victimized and persecuted me. He has been greatly assisted by Politicians, traditional rulers, military personnel, government officials and pressmen. It is by the grace of GOD that I am alive today.
The feelers that I have received of date is that Mr. Owoso threat to use the law enforecement agency against me is real. Not withstanding the efforts I have so far made at writing petitions to the anti-grafts agencies that is EFCC ad ICPC the EFCC arrested and detained me for two days made me to be reporting at intervals at EFCC office till date and consticated my international passport till date in respect of a purported investigation it claimed it was conducting into a petition touching on Yabatech staff school because I prepared the budget while the person who collected the money emanating from the budget I prepared (Mr. Owoso the former Rector) and spent it on items outside what was stated in the budget continued to work freely around. It is now a case of the complainant becoming the accused!!
Prayer
I am appealing to the various authority including the EFCC chairman to do justice to my complaints and the case which certain people are trying to use against me to spoil my reputation and integrity. If I am guilty I should be prosecuted if not I should be allowed to stop parading the EFCC office at intervals. This is because such constant visit to the EFCC is a great embarrassment to me and is having psychological effect on me. Aside this my meager resources is being committed to this visit. I live on the charity of friends and relations after Owoso organized my dismissal from the services of the college for giving information to EFCC.
It is too much a burden on me to be applying the charity money given to me to fund expenses to EFCC office at intervals.
Unless something os done and urgently too, other well meaning Nigerians might not be favourably disposed to give information to assist law enforcement agencies in combating crimes as they may become vulnerable targets of the very forces they wish to expose.
I humbly urged that you use your good office to ascertain the truth or otherwise of my allegations and free me from false accusations, victimization and persecution. The EFCC should not be seen as joining in persecuting me for giving her information about corruption and should direct that I should not be made to continue parading the EFCC at intervals, return my international passport to me and if it is considered necessary investigate the cases of corruption brought against Mr. Owoso the former Rector of Yaba College of Technology.
Thank you and God bless.
Yours faithfully,
Akeju J. B
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