The sacked Bursar of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Mr. Olusegun Ibirogba, has described the fresh allegation of missing N1.6 billion levelled against him and six others as outright mischief by the management of the college.
The management of the college, in a statement by the spokesman for the institution, Dr. Charles Oni, said Ibirogba and Mr. Charles Akhariya, and five affected officers are to account for missing funds said to have been allegedly stolen from the coffers of the college between 2008 and 2013. But Ibirogba, who spoke through a telephone interview, described the allegation as an outright mischief, calculated to demean his personality.
The money, according to a committee set up by the management to audit the College Students Account Section of the Bursary, based on questions raised by Adebayo Arowolo & Co Auditing firm, found that about N1,682,806,539 was unaccounted for within the period.
Chairman of the investigation committee, Mr. Joseph Akeju, said Ibirogba and his colleagues –Akhariya,Mrs. Onabanjo Olukorode, Azeez Ajewole, Michael Oyenola, Amu Foluke, Egbemi Chinwe and Florence Egbeni – jointly carted away both the software and hard copies of records of payment and other records from the Student Account Section of the bursary. The statement quoted Akeju as saying in the report:
“Although, that made the assignment tedious, but because of the commitment of the committee members, we were able to collect data from the registry on students’ enrolment, bank reconciliation reports, interview with both bursary and registry staff, we were able to get results. “Comparing the actual with the expected earnings between 2008 and 2009, the committee found that the variance in 2008 was N108, 393,665.
The variance for 2009 was N119, 807,030 and the figures continued to increase toN656, 376,570 in 2013.” Akeju blamed the theft of huge sums of money from the bursary during the period covered by the investigation when Ibirogba and Akharayi were bursar and head of student section respectively on “the throwing up of strangers into the bursary unit to boss their seniors and rampage the system,” a serious infringement of the system.
But, to Ibirogba, the head of the investigation committee, Akeju, is the former bursar of the college and was sacked in 2009, after spending more than 11 years in office beyond the stipulated 10-year term for a bursar.
“The same Akeju was reemployed two months ago by the incumbent Rector, Dr. Margaret Kudirat Ladipo, apparently to carry out her hatchet job,” he said, arguing: “If the documents were carted away as alleged by the management, what has the college done to other officers who are still in the service of the institution, except himself (Ibirogba) and Akhariya that had been unjustly sacked by the management,” he queried.
Akeju said in the committee’s report that Ibirogba, who was brought in from the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, and became a bursar a few months before the incumbent Rector assumed office was allegedly given accelerated promotion, and allowed to bring into the system, six other accountants from his former institution. “These were the people he used to circumvent the system and turned the Student Accounts Section to his fiefdom between 2008 and 2013,” the college alleged.
According to the financial expert, Ibirogba used his hirelings to block the control system and circumvent the audit control mechanism thereby allowing leakage in the revenue accruing to the College.
“Normal account reconciliation became nonexistent as the Student Accounts Section became a sacred cow where nobody dare ventured contrary to Section 2501 and 2502 of the Financial Regulation of 2009.”
Akeju described what happened between 2008 and 2013 as a period of locust ravage in the College. There were no records of students payment in any guise, no record of payment for hostel, bank records were concealed as the section operated its own cash book, no record of money collected through the Unified Matriculation Examination and bank records were not detailed.
Worse still, Akharayi refused to hand over to his successor in office which is tantamount to annihilation of record and an attempt to cover up wrong doings.” Receiving the report, the Rector, Ladipo, expressed dismay at the level of fraud allegedly perpetuated by the sacked bursar.
“It is evidently clear now that it is corruption fighting back as we make efforts to clear the ugly past left in the college by fraudsters thrusting themselves up as “Whistle blowers.” It is so sad.
