EXCLUSIVE: ICPC set for trial of UI lecturers accused of financial misappropriation

A date has been fixed for the trial of some lecturers indicted for financial impropriety.

The academics are lecturers in the department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ibadan.

PREMIUM TIMES, last year, reported how the financial transactions of a conference meant for the department were enmeshed in controversy and allegations of misappropriation.

Amongst those involved are two professors, Miracle Oyewola and Dare Ademola, who headed the department from 2011- 2012 and 2012-2016 respectively.

The lecturers have denied any wrongdoing.

On Thursday, some of the lecturers, including Messrs Oyewola and Ademola, were present at the High Court sitting in Ibadan, where February 15, 2021, was fixed as the date of arraignment.

The legal representative of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) was also present.

This paper learnt the mention of the case was initially slated for Thursday (November 5) but the court could not proceed because it is on recess.

Back story

In 2018, Chukwuemeka Diji, a PhD holder, who succeeded Mr Ademola, wrote the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), demanding an investigation into the ‘corrupt practices’ in the department.

He asked the commission to compel the university to probe the organisation of the Energy, Technology and Management (ETM) conference and its account since 2012- 2016.

PREMIUM TIMES’ reporter gathered then through an official of Guarantee Trust Bank that the account existed between 2012 and 2017, indicating it was in operation two years after the implementation of Treasury Single Account policy.

TSA policy, which forbids any government parastatal from running a separate bank account, was implemented in 2015.

Meanwhile, Leke Oluwole, the current Head of Department, defended the embattled professors when this reporter confronted him in June last year.

“The department was running an account before the implementation of TSA. Then when the treasury single account came, we ‘migrated’ the account to the school account. SERVICOM has looked at it and they have holistically done everything,” he told this paper.

Although Mr Diji was later dismissed by the school authorities, an official of ICPC had hinted, late last year, that the agency would arraign the academics found culpable.

The process is believed to have been delayed by the total lockdown enforced to curb COVID-19 pandemic.

The ICPC concluded its investigations earlier this year and believes the lecturers have a case to answer, thus their arraignment.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the anti-graft agency, Azuka Ogugua, could not provide answers to questions on the specific charges and names of other lecturers to be arraigned alongside the two professors.

“If I have anything, I’ll send it to you via text,” she said on Friday morning.