Court adjorns fraud case till next year

A high court in Ogun State sitting over the fraud case involving Pro-Chancellor of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta FUNAAB, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, the Vice-chancellor, Prof Oyewole Olusola and Bursar, Moses Ilesanmi has been adjorned to January 27 and February 9 and 10 of 2017.

The trio had been accused of siphoning about N800m of 2013 earned allowances released by the Federal government.

According to the judge, Mrs Olatokunbo Majekodunmi the case was adjorned to address the issue raised by "the accused counsel if the court has the jurisdiction to hear that case or not." she stated.

When the hearing commenced at Court 6, the lead accused counsel, Benjamin Ogunmodede, had filed that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case "and my client wants the case to be quashed," he stated, but the EFCC counsel, Ben Obi, objected to it.

Meanwhile, in a further investigation made by Daily Sun, it was gathered that the earned allowance which was allotted to FUNAAB was shared among about 2500 staffers of the school.

According to the committee report of the 2013 earned allowance which was chaired by Olukayode Akindele; out of the N842,849,898, 50 percent of N830M was shared to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), with the remaining 50 percent shared among Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University (SSANU),National Association of Academic Technologist (NAAT), and Non-Accademic Staff Union (NASU).

Meanwhile, the reports show that the remaining N12,849,898 was set aside as contingency to take care of unforeseen circumstances.

Adding that the report shared the money based on the agreement the Federal government and on the "modality and Memorandum of Underwear standing which was developed and endorsed by each of the Union except ASUU who did not participate in the meeting then who was on a national wide strike," it stated.

The committee report was signed by all its members which includes Prof F. K. Salami, M. A. Washed, Mr. Polycarp Shambo. Dr. S. O Akinwande, A. M. Shittu, Mr. A. O Salaam and others.