By Gabriel Dike
The Federal Ministry of Education (FME), Abuja, has directed the new Governing Council of the Federal College of Education Technical (FCET), Akoka, to investigate the alleged misappropriation of N240 million in the college for fencing.
The directive to the new council, headed by Dr. Adenuga Adeniyi Olatunde, was contained in resolutions reached during a reconciliatory meeting between the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sunnu and the representatives of aggressive staff, the FCET provost, Dr. Ademola Azeez, and members of the new council.
The resolutions were signed by the director, Colleges of Education, Mrs. Uchenna Uba, the chairmen of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), the Senior Staff Colleges of Education in Nigeria (SSUCOEN) and the council chairman, Dr. Olatunde.
The one-page letter reads: Following the reconciliatory meeting between the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Sunnu and representatives of aggrieved staff, FCET provost, Dr. Azeez, and the chairman, governing council, Dr. Olatunde held on July 4th.”
On item four, the resolution stated: “The grievance of staff of FCET, Akoka, particularly the misappropriation of funds approved for the fencing of the college, will be investigated by the governing council.”
The resolutions disclosed that the chairman of council and four external members would visit the college on Tuesday, July 9, to address members of staff.
On the resumption of office by the embattled provost, the aggrieved staff refused to hand over the office key to the council chairman as captured in resolution three, which was to allow Azeez resume his official duties.
The college management was also directed to take immediate measures to improve the condition of Chief Lecturers’ offices or allow them to go back to their former offices.
In his reactions to the outcome of the meeting, chairman of SSUCOEN, Mr. Augustine Nwachukwu, asked if the college has any land or property at Lekki that would warrant the use of N240 million to fence the place.
He explained that the land at Lekki is owned by individual staff members of FCET Cooperative and wondered why federal government funds would be used to fence the land.
Nwachukwu revealed that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) approved N240million for fencing of the college land, noting, “as far as I am concern, the government or the college does not have a campus at Lekki.”
The chairman asked how can investigation be conducted when the provost is still in office? Adding, “FCET Akoka is already fenced. The Lekki land is privately owned through the cooperative. The provost also bought land there.”
According to him, the provost requested for N273million but TETFund approved N240million for the project, noting, the land is for staff that bought land for their personal use.”
He recalled that in 2001, staff paid N120,000 to acquire the land through the cooperative and late land owners were asked to pay N500,000 land grabbers but after opposition to the demand, the amount was reduced to N300,000, which was paid by individual owners.
Nwachukwu confirmed that the congresses of the unions would hold ahead the governing council visit to brief members about the resolutions of the meeting.