There is trouble in the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State.

Senior officials of the school are quarrelling over an alleged N50 million funds misapplication.

Specifically, some officials, in a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the State Security Services (SSS), are accusing Olatona and others of disbursing over N50 million of the school’s funds through questionable transactions.

The petition, dated June 27, this year, and written by a group "Committee of Concerned Kwarans CCK", was signed by one A. O. Afolabi and R. A. Jimoh.

But Olatona, the man at the centre of the allegations, said the petitioners were the product of frustrated minds who were on a revenge mission against perceived opponents of the Bello administration.

Besides, he showed a letter to prove that the names behind the petition were allegedly forged.

In the two-page letter dated September 21, 2006, the alleged signatories sent a protest to the management, dissociating themselves from the petition.

Bello, a cerebral academic with vast interest in statistics and management, offered to resign his appointment from the institution, three years ahead of the end of his second term in office and about two months after the Governing Council of the school sent him on compulsory leave.

The Governing Council had, at an extra–ordinary meeting held in March 2006 at Lafia, Nassarawa State, asked Bello to proceed on leave to give room for an investigation of his administration following widespread allegations by staff and administrative unions.

The three industrial unions in the school, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Senior Staff Association of Polytechnic (SSANIP) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) said they would not welcome Bello back to the campus, following a vote of no confidence their members passed on his administration during their last joint congress.

A statement jointly issued by the three unions said the former Rector should not be allowed back in the interest of peace, genuine development and growth of the institution.

The statement was signed by Oyedokun Alli, for ASUP, Ogun-jaiyeju F.O (SSANIP) and Oloyede R, (NASU).

About two weeks later, the Governing Council through a memo by Mr. M. O. Olatona, Registrar and Secretary to Council, instituted an administrative inquiry to investigate allegations, petitions and complaints against Bello’s tenure and asked members of the school’s community to submit position papers on the matter.

The memo, with ref FPO/RO/74/S.1 lists the terms of reference for the committee to include the following: "investigate all the various petitions, complaints and allegations made against the administration of the Rector, Dr. Razaq Bello, identify the factors, immediate and remote, which have been militating against smooth running of the Polytechnic and which have been responsible for the lingering problems, hiccups and tension in the Polytechnic.

"To identify individuals or groups who have been aiding and abetting the sustenance of these problems and restive situation, proffer solutions that would not only solve these problems but also bring about a positive turn around in the Polytechnic towards unhindered achievement of its set goals and objectives, recommend sanctions to be meted out to those found culpable directly or remotely with the lingering problems militating against the smooth operation of the Polytechnic." He did not survive the investigation.

The CCK claimed that about N13 million was spent by the institution on the Bello investigation. They claimed that Olatona collected among others, N1.07milion on May 5, 2006 through voucher number FPO/BUR/OC/644/20006, another N1.07million on May 15,2006 (FPO/BUR/OC/678/20006) and another N3.258million (FPO/BUR/OC/808/20006) on June 8, 2006.

CCK’s allegations also include a N1.178 million the Registrar allegedly gave to the Chairman of Council, Mr.Doragba Igube, said to be a gubernatorial aspirant in Nasarawa State. Another N302, 000 was said to have been paid to Olatona himself, through voucher numbers FPO/BUR/OC/850/20006 and FPO/BUR/OC/675/20006.

Other ‘crimes’ said to have been committed by Olatona include allegedly benefiting along with other principal officers from the payment of household allowance which the petitioner claimed had been outlawed by the Federal Government.

Olatona was said to have collected N1million under this category while two officers also allegedly got the same amount. They alleged he also collected over N5million and N9.3million for the roofing of the school’s Adesoye Hall and construction of a new Academic Office Block comprising about 10 rooms.

Most of the allegations were made either out of ignorance or deliberate mischief. He buttressed his defence with documents.

"The figures you are quoting are correct," he said as our correspondent read through the allegations on the Bello investigation and added: "But they are very mischievous to say that the funds were embezzled. There are several ‘checkpoints’ in every financial dealing here that it is near impossible to do what they are alleging.

"There was a crisis on hand and because of the volatility of the situation, we had to sit in Abuja mostly. The amounts in question were allowances and logistics for all officers involved in the case, including the former Rector. It included touring allowances, rentage of hall, security, night allowance etc. and this is how my name came into the picture: whenever the meeting was scheduled to hold, the Registrar writes the Rector detailing the expenses involved.

"He either approves or reduces but in most cases he approves. Then he sends it to the Bursar who raises a voucher for the expenses to be incurred. The Bursar sends it to the Internal Auditor who again either clears it or rejects it. If he is satisfied, he sends it back to the Bursar who now issues a cheque in my name as Registrar and Secretary to Council. That is why I say they were mischievous. The cheque number you quoted was because I asked that the money be transferred to the nearest bank to the sitting venue because of the risk involved in carrying huge cash about in a vehicle. At the end of the day you will see that what gets to the Registrar is not more than N30,000."

Asked to explain the choice of Abuja for a case at Offa, Olatona, said it was to protect several people among them, Bello. "It was not safe to hold such a meeting here because no matter how bad or good a Rector is, he will still have his own friends around, and also for the safety of the Rector himself. You must know that the unions said they did not want him on the campus and even the day we held one of such meetings here because it involved so many of the workers, there were about 25 buses driving dangerously around, warning against bringing back the man.

"Another reason was to allow the representative of the Ministry of Education on the Council to be at the meeting because she was already having misunderstanding in the office over her frequent traveling which was due to our unusually frequent meetings. For instance because of the crisis, we had to meet about eight times under five months instead of the four per session."

On the money allegedly given Iguba, the Registrar said it must have been the petitioners’ lack of details because whenever the allowances of Council is written, it is usually documented as " Chairman and others" and that the only time the Chairman got money on his own would be to attend meetings of Council Chairmen and the amount he could get would not be more than N130,000.

"If you see N1million,it must be for him and others" he said and went ahead to defend the allowances said to have been colleted despite a government stoppage of such. His words: "As Principal Officers, we are entitled to the allowance but we were denied by Dr. Bello; myself, the Librarian and Bursar. It got to a point that the Librarian had to write the former Rector who became annoyed and they had an altercation.

"I do tell people that I will collect it when leaving this school because it is my entitlement but as God would have it, the Council set up a committee on its inaugural sitting and they came here, we gave them comprehensive briefing. The Financial Briefing by the Bursar was not acceptable to them so they set up a sub committee, which now looked into the finances of the school and they saw it was only the Rector that was collecting the allowance. Their decision then was that the other officers must be paid at the rate of 75 per cent of what the Rector had taken. It was at that meeting, September 9, 2005, that the Bursar was asked to proceed on compulsory leave.

"My entitlement is supposed to be N5.3 million, Bursar N3.7 million and Librarian N3.3 million because I came in before them. We looked at the finances of the school and realised we couldn’t pay all at once. The only officer who got his pay in full was the former Bursar when he was leaving. I have received only N2 million because our finances is not very buoyant; we are spending much on the Nottingham project."

He denied collecting any money on the Adesoye Hall and Academic building controversial leging that it was Bello and another senior staff that collected the money for the project. But more than this, Olatona expressed concerns that he was being linked with the allegations because of Bello’s misfortune, arguing that unknown to many, only a few family and personal friends of the former Rector, he actually did so much to save Bello’s job.

"I see them as vanguards for the former Rector" he said of the petitioners, adding: "They did not write to ask why the roof was blown off knowing full well that it was their man who picked the local contractors that did the job. Council had passed instruction that we renovate the school before students resumed, the money was released enblock and it was Bello who collected it. They did not ask him how much he spent on the Computer Centre and yet nothing is working but very soon, everything will be blown opened and people will begin to account for their deeds. All these are happening because some people believe that Bello was badly treated,, but all the allegations against him are on tape and I won’t say more than that now."

It was gathered that the State Security Services (SSS) had recently arrested several staff of the school’s Bursary department as part of efforts to sanitise the school. Olatona confirmed that the management team under Bello had been quizzed early this year by the EFCC and that even recently the ICPC also paid a visit to the school in the course of duty.