By Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan
Fresh credibility crisis has gripped Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) in Ekiti state, South-West Nigeria, as a lecturer was reportedly queried, then suspended, by the university authorities for complaining publicly of an alleged fraud of over N10 million perpetrated against him.
The money was the remainder of payment on a grant offered the lecturer by Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to pursue a Ph.D programme at a university in Cyprus.
The said sum allegedly developed wings in the hands of three Accounts Division staff of TETFUND, possibly in collision with other persons, leaving the lecturer stranded in Cyprus and his vital academic pursuit, for which Nigeria had already spent a small fortune, in jeopardy.
Peopleandpolitics.net gathered that the victim, a Lecturer II in the university’s Department of Psychology, Mr. Kamal A. Odunjo-Saka’s admission to the Ph.D programme enabled him secure the TETFund scholarship/grant.
It was learned that when a large chunk of the funds was not released and it dawned on the scholar that he might lose the opportunity, he blew the whistle on the three staff of TETFUND who had allegedly been playing hide-and-seek with him over release of the funds for about two years.
It was further gathered that this move angered the university authorities and an alleged cycle of witch-hunt of the lecturer began, leading to his suspension from office.
Explaining his ordeal, Odunjo-Saka disclosed that the three TETFUND staff had not been able to prove that his tuition funds had been credited to his account with the Cyprus university even as the school remained adamant that his tuition had not been paid.
He said: “My Ph.D sponsorship award grant was approved on 11/11/2020. My study was scheduled to start in January 2021.
“But, due to two reasons, I could not leave Nigeria until October 2021. The first reason was TETFUND’s delay in the payment of the initial tuition deposit, which is a prerequisite by my university in Cyprus for issuing the acceptance letter that would allow me to travel down to Cyprus; though, after several correspondences and explanations, the initial tuition deposit of a total sum of €3,622.50 was paid, out of €8,872.50 approved for my tuition in the award letter, with a promise that the remaining tuition balance of €5,250 would be offset when I get to Cyprus.
“The second reason was COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a travel ban; it wasn’t until it was lifted before I could travel in October 2021.
“Unfortunately, during course registration of my second semester in May 2022, it was realised that the money left in my school account was not enough to register the number of required courses for that semester.
“Then, on reaching back to TETFUND for the payment of the outstanding tuition, it was a rude shock to hear from one Mr. Gbenga, who is a TETFUND staff, that the money had been paid to my university account since March 2021. But, when I asked them for the payment invoice for the said amount so that I could use it to claim the payment from the university account office in order to credit my account accordingly, there came excuses.
“It was another rude shock as the said Mr. Gbenga quickly referred me to another staff member, one Mrs. Layo. After several conversations without useful result, Mrs. Layo further referred me to another staff member, one Mr. Auwal.
“With all these abracadabra and series of altercations between us, the Mr. Genga finally opened up in a very ridiculous way (because they could not provide the payment invoice for their fake claim) that they just discovered that the money they previously claimed to have paid, eventually bounced bank from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and they would need to reprocess the payment.
“This ridiculous excuse came up in October, which was after six months of contacting them for the payment.”
Odunjo-Saka said the highly suspicious development put a stop to the continuation of his studies, as the school shut his student portal.
Odunjo-Saka added: “While all these were going on, my student portal was closed by the university; and two warning letters were sent to me by my university in Cyprus for possible deportation, due to the continued accumulation of outstanding tuition.
“I was compelled to borrow money to save my studentship after two semesters of zero academic records, due to TETFUND’s failure to offset the outstanding tuition.
“In December 2022, I came back to Nigeria to formally inform my university back home of my ugly experience with TETFUND.
“On hearing my story, the university management wrote two different letters on my case, one to my university in Cyprus, asking it not to terminate my studentship, that the process for offsetting the outstanding tuition was ongoing.
“The second letter was sent to TETFUND to fast-track the payment procedure, as further delay might hinder my study.
“Sadly, I am now in the seventh semester of the Ph.D programme, but as I speak, no single kobo has been paid out of the remaining outstanding tuition of the total sum of €5,250, which is an equivalent of over N10 million at current exchange rate.
“More painful is the fact that I had quietly started my self-sponsorship and successfully completed the course work part of a Ph.D programme I started in 2019 at my alma mater (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) with excellent performance in the final results of my course work, before I was granted the TETFUND sponsorship on merit.
“Surprisingly, after the issue appeared in the media, the TETFUND authority felt embarrassed; and the next thing was this directive from TETFUND that FUOYE management ought to issue me query for having audacity to expose the age-long unchallenged financial fraud in the commission to the public.
“It was like joke when, suddenly, FUOYE management sent me three clueless queries on the same day.”
Investigation revealed that Odunjo-Saka indeed responded to the queries which frowned at his resort to the public domain option through the media over his matter.
In a memo dated December 20, addressed to the Registrar of FUOYE through the Head, Department of Psychology, Odunjo-Saka responded to the queries, asking, among other conditions, that the three TETFUND staff be compelled to provide concrete evidence that the balance of his tuition was released on time, but reversed by CBN.
Several telephone calls to Mr. Wole Balogun, Special Assistant (Media) to FUOYE Vice Chancellor, Professor Sunday Fasina, were not responded to even as the phone reported “line busy” at a point.
Subsequently, a Short Message Service (SMS) transmitted to his line, seeking the official side to the story, was equally not replied to, as of press time.
