Ex-female worker, students allegedly defraud Ondo varsity of N457m

The Acting Vice-Chancellor of Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, Prof. Oyesoji Aremu, has revealed how a former staff orchestrated the stealing of N457,508,645.00 from the institution.

Aremu disclosed this in a Monday statement.

He said the female ex-staff, who is an alumna of the institution, collaborated with others to hack into the students’ payment portal and lured 320 students into paying their fees into her personal accounts.

The suspect then cleared their bills on the university portal to enable the students to obtain their financial clearance.

According to him, the fraud was uncovered through the Students’ Fees Payment Audit Exercise concluded on Friday.

He said the fraud took place in the 2023/2024, 2024/2025, and 2025/2026 academic sessions, and the audit exercise required every student to physically appear before an investigative panel.

The VC explained, “The exercise has revealed that the fraud was masterminded by a female worker, an alumnus of the Department of Accounting of our university, who was later employed to work at the university bursary. She resigned from the services of the university in April 2025.

“The fraudulent activities affected three academic sections: 2023/2024, 2024/2025, and 2025/2026 Academic Sessions and 320 students paid a total sum of N457,508,645:00 school fees into the personal account of the said lady, who in turn fraudulently cleared such students on the portal without the university receiving the money. Many of the students were lured to pay into her account by the offer of discounted fees/ commission.

“Eleven members of staff and 34 students were used as agents of the said female worker to ‘recruit’ students for the fraudulent activities. One external person working at Federal Medical Centre Owo was also indicted as having served as an agent of the fraudulent activities.”

Aremu disclosed that all 320 students and six students who served as agents would be compelled to appear before the students’ disciplinary committee to further explain why they circumvented the university’s well-laid-down fees payment procedures.

“The 11 members of staff who infamously acted as agents for the said mastermind will also face the senior staff disciplinary committee, while the said mastermind is under police investigation for subsequent prosecution,” the university boss stated.