THE newly appointed Governing Council chairman of The Ibarapa Polytechnic, Eruwa, now Adeseun Ogundoyin Polytechnic, Dr Samuel Ogundiran has debunked rumour of his arrest by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over alleged financial misappropriation, saying that the fake new was targeted to tarnish his image.
Ogundiran made this known while reacting to a media report of his alleged involvement in financial misappropriation during his tenure as the Governing Council Chairman of the Ibarapa Polytechnic.
He noted that the present administration in Oyo State has set up a visitation panel to look into the allegation of misappropriation of funds and other issues that caused the crises in the school. Ogundiran explained that the panel report was submitted to the government and the white paper of that report has been released, where non of the council members including himself was indicted in the white paper. The governing council chairman, who is an Associate Professor of Educational Administration & Planning, pointed accusing fingers at the suspended management of the institution led by the former rector, Rasheed Eyitayo, as behind the fake news, saying that all that the suspended management was trying to do was just mere blackmail and propaganda to tarnish his image. “As a result of the misappropriation of the suspended management, they wanted to use EFCC to stop a meeting that was held on 28th of May, 2019 so that the meeting would not hold because they knew that if the meeting was held, the decision of the council might affect them,” he said. The submission of the Governing Council’s chairman tally with sources from the institution union executives together with the elders of the host community of the institutions. In his response, the secretary, Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the six states owned tertiary institutions, Mr Akin Adekanbi, noted that the date on the fake story was the last date of the last management which has been suspended, saying that the writer of the fake report should have done their investigation very well before embarking on it, adding that, the writer should have confirmed from the EFCC Ibadan and the Police Area Command in Eruwa.” “There was a lot of crisis in the institution during the tenure of Eyitayo led administration, and it got to a stage the governing council set up a committee to investigate the cases and the last day the decision was about to make on the committee report that the EFCC visited the campus, the union in the campus insisted that the meeting must hold, and after the meeting, the Governing Council chairman and its members, the management and all the three unions in the school went to EFCC office.” “We got to EFCC office at Iyaganku very late, and their boss was not around and they were later released on personal recognition because evidence worked against the suspended management, there is management outside which the government has suspended and their names have been removed from the payroll of the institution, so in one way or the other, they will be aggrieved.” “A lot of investigation and search has been done on all the governing council appointee before government eventually appointed them, so if anybody at this time is trying to blackmail or to go against the decision of the government, posterity will judge such person, we held a JAC meeting today and nobody resisted what the government has done.” The chairman, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnic, Ibarapa Polytechnic branch, Mr Titiloye Joseph described the fake news that is currently trending against the governing council chairman as the work of blackmailer who wanted to tarnish the image of the chairman because of his re-emergence as the governing council chairman of the institution “The suspended management used EFCC to stop a meeting held by the governing council which might affect them, the Police Area Commander in Eruwa told the EFCC operatives that the council should be allowed to hold the meeting and the council will follow the anti graft’s report. When contacted on phone, a source within EFCC Ibadan office who pleaded anonymity, said that the anti-graft agency only invited, not arrested the Governing Council chairman, adding that the case was not a serious issue because the EFCC would have taken it up by then if it was a serious issue.
