All is not well in the IT Department of Covenant University, Otta, TheNation can authoritatively report.
A guru in information technology (IT) attached to that department is in the police net after he was found to have devised a means by which he diverted funds meant for the university into his private pocket. By the time the university woke up to his antics, he had succeeded in siphoning a whopping N180 million!
Before the bubble burst, not a few people were said to have wondered how the loved and trusted official was managing to get the funds with which he maintained a lifestyle the Chancellor of the university and Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, would call “riotous living.”
He was said to have bought some flashy cars which he kept in a mansion he bought with stolen funds in highbrow Lekki part of Lagos, even though he had a house in the school where he lived with his wife.
Every Friday, he would cruise with his wife to the posh house in Lekki to enjoy the weekend. But what really gave him away was the habit of flying back to his duty post in Otta in a chopper that landed at the premises of The Bells University, which is only a stone’s throw from Covenant University.
Tongues began to wag from onlookers who started to wonder who the big boy could be. Word about his lifestyle soon got to the authorities of Covenant University who decided to put him under surveillance and realised that he had stolen the university’s money amounting to more than N180 million. The funds were mainly school fees paid by students. The fees were paid into the accounts of the university in designated banks but the disingenuous inventor found a means of diverting the money into his private account. The discovery alarmed the authorities of the school. Oyedepo, sources said, was flabbergasted.
The IT guru was promptly reported to the police, who arrested him. Covenant University authorities expected the police to fast track his prosecution but that was not forthcoming.
Words got to the university that the suspected fraudster was greasing the palms of the police. Again alarmed by the development, the authorities sidelined the police and handed the suspect to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Upon interrogation, the suspect admitted stealing the said sum and even agreed to refund N56 million in cash immediately. Sentry will keep you posted on further developments.
