HOS, YABATECH Council, Police clear rector of fraud, says official

The Yaba College of Technology, Lagos says its Rector, Dr. Margaret Ladipo, has been cleared of allegations of fraud and corrupt practices.

The institution’s spokesman, Charles Oni, said this in a statement on Friday, a copy of which was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria.

Oni said the Head of Service of the Federation, the institution’s Governing Council and the Police had exonerated Ladipo.

Oni noted that the media had been awash with claims of corrupt practices against Ladipo by some people.

He said: “The Chairman of the Council, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, dismissed the petitioners’ as ‘shameless’ and ‘enemies’ of modern society.

“He expressed surprise at the magnitude of falsehood the petitioners were capable of raking up.

“Every single contract awarded under the rector’s watch went through the due process, and no single member of the Council was in any way rewarded for facilitating her second term.

“She got it purely on the basis of merit and her exceptional achievements in her first tenure.”

According to Oni, Ladipo, with the support of the governing council, and amid paucity of funds, had been able to consolidate on the achievements.

Oni said: “On the N5 million security vote, every minute of the day, the college is confronted with one security challenge or the other.

“It is not strange for chief executives to have security vote. Moreover, this was appropriately approved by the college’s governing council which has the statutory authority to do so.

“The petitions were sent to the various government agencies – the Ministry of Education, EFCC, ICPC, Inspector-General of Police, Chief of Staff to the President, the Head of Service and the Governing Council of the college.

“Interestingly, the reports received so far have given her (the rector) a clean bill of health.

“Babatope set up a five-man committee led by Mr Shehu Kagara to investigate the allegations and came up with a report dated September 13, 2013, and addressed to the Minister of Education.

“The report cleared the rector of the allegations of corrupt practices.

“A letter of acquittal of the rector, dated September 27, 2013, was copied the Registrar and Secretary to the Council.

“The council was satisfied with the findings of the committee that the allegations were spurious and baseless; and a mischief, intended to malign the character of the rector.

“On December 30, 2013, the Ministry of Education, through Mrs Hindatu, Abdullahi, Director, Tertiary Education, also wrote to the rector, saying she is ‘exonerated of all the allegations as they are baseless and spurious’.”

Oni said the petitions were also investigated by the IGP’s office, which issued a report dated August 27, 2014 and signed by Arungwa Nwazue, ACP (Admin) on behalf of DIG, CID Abuja, and were declared as “trivial, frivolous, false and lacking in credibility”.

NAN.