EKSU sacks 7 for certificate racketeering, fraud

THE Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti has booted out seven of its workers for their roles in alleged illegal sale and award of the institution’s certificates.

Vice Chancellor of EKSU, Professor Sam Oye Bandele, who disclosed this while addressing newsmen in his office, on Wednesday, said two of the workers were the ones who faked the certificate while five we the beneficiaries of the fraud.

Professor Bandele said the syndicate, apart from illegally issuing the institution’s certificate to unqualified people for a fee, its members “were also recruiting people illegally into the employ of the university.”

Bandele, who stated this while reacting to allegations that he was running an underground recruitment and awarding contracts to his wife, pointed out that the dismissed workers “forged my signature and used this to recruit people and sell certificates to undeserving people for various amounts of money.”

According to the Vice Chancellor, “they were investigated and found guilty by the university’s Council, which approved their dismissal.”

Bandele said the Deputy Vice Chancellors and the Registrar for their efforts in supporting his vision of making the university worthy of its name.

“We introduced ICT in the issuance of the institution’s certificate, we blocked loopholes that hitherto existed in this area as well as in the area of revenue. With this, we have been able to generate about N200million, up from the about N20million we used to generate,” Professor Bandele stated.

Reacting to the allegation of secret recruitment, he said the university had not employed up to 15 people this year, saying “last year, we recruited 300 but some people alleged that we recruited 700 or 1,000; these are lies because since the recruitment of last year, we have only recruited 15 persons to fill some necessary vacancies.”

Speaking on one of the allegations in unsigned leaflets which also claimed that he travelled with his wife, Bandele said “I will continue to travel (abroad) with my wife because I will not travel with somebody else’s wife. Some people here are not happy that I did not take them along and I have no apology for travelling with my wife whether local or overseas. If I travel with my wife, why are they angry?”

He said he was entitled to business class ticket but upon notifying the university’s council that he would travel with his wife, he waived his privilege to travel business class and travel economy so as to travel with his wife.

He said: “We travel by economy class even when I am entitled to business class but I write for a waiver because I don’t want to defraud the university.”