Some executives of the National Union of Kebbi State Students have been accused of siphoning the union’s funds. CAMPUSLIFE checks revealed that the account of the union has allegedly been run down by the leaders, who claim they used the funds for some personal ‘investments.’ Bashir Turawa reports.
Three of the executives of the National Union of Kebbi State Students (NUKESS) have been impeached. Similarly, two others have been suspended for allegedly embezzling the union’s funds.
The President, Mohammed Umar Buhari; Vice President 2, Nazir Aliyu and the Financial Secretary, Aminu Shehu Kalgo, CAMPUSLIFE learned, were axed for mismanaging the funds.
The Public Relations Officer, Abdulrahman Ibrahim Diri and the Assistant Secretary-General of the union, Shamsu Abubakar Sauwa, were also suspended.
The five were axed following the decision of the committee set up by the students’ representative council (SRC), which investigated the matter and found them guilty of all allegations.
According to the report, a copy which was made available to CAMPUSLIFE, the suspended executive received N1,444, 800, since October when the administration kicked off.
A breakdown of its expenditure was given as N565,000. However, the balance in the association’s bank account was N6,687, instead of N873,113 after the expenditure was deducted from the amount.
Chairman of the investigation committee Aminu Ahmad confirmed the impeachment and suspension of the five executive members. The punishement, according to Ahmad, followed further probe of how N873,113 disappeared from the union’s account.
“The union got the sum of N1,444,800; the total expenditure was N565,000 and the remaining balance was N6,678 naira. An outstanding amount of N873,112 is missing now,” Ahmad told CAMPUSLIFE.
Ahmad continued, “He (Buhari) claimed to have donated the sum of N 70,000 to one of his friends and N20,000 to his colleague which is unconstitutional. The constitution only allowed him to use N15,000 every two months for donations.
“Thereafter, we submitted the committee interim report to the speaker who insisted that anybody found guilty must face the wrath of the law. We had a sitting with 16 honorable members, presidents of his (Buhari) local chapters, among others. They all raised a vote of no confidence against him (the president). This was supported by all the honourable members. Then we allowed Section 23 subs-section (I) of our Constitution which states thus: “The union shall maintain strict financial discipline among its members’. That is when the house wrote its recommendation and I read it out loud in front of the stakeholders, staff advisers and the present executive members who upheld our decision. None of them (impeached members) was able to defend themselves because they all agreed to have squandered the money” to take its course.
Diri revealed how the union fund was looted by sidelining the treasurer and changing the account signatories.
“The legitimate withdrawal made by the union is about N300,000 which entails monthly stipends for the executives and meeting allowances. When the issue started, the assistant secretary general and I were not always carried along, even though we’re active members. The president changed the signatories of the union’s account to his and the financial secretary’s, while removing the treasurer’s. Whenever we called the president and financial secretary, they would always dodge summons and whenever we asked how much was left in the account, the president would always say N480,000. This continued till Shamsu Kalgo, who is a stakeholder in the union, revealed that the union has about N6,000 only in the account”.
While being interrogated by SRC, CAMPUSLIFE gathered that Buhari and others claimed to have borrowed the union’s funds for personal investments. He said he borrowed N200,000 for an unnamed investment. Buhari said his second vice also borrowed N100,000 for investment, while the financial secretary borrowed N120,000. They however signed an agreement to return the money, CAMPUSLIFE was told.
Rejecting his suspension, Diri said even though he and the Assistant secretary general were able to exonerate themselves from the scandal, the SRC still suspended on the ground that as active members of the executives, such atrocity couldn’t have gone without their knowledge.
“My suspension and that of the assistant secretary general lack constitutional backing because we were able to defend ourselves and the staff adviser didn’t sign the recommendation letter. We were at first suspended for 30 days but later reduced to 15 days,” he said.
However, Buhari has described his impeachment as ‘unconstitutional’, saying that it has political undertone.
He said:”This is a recommended impeachment and not official impeachment. The students representative council were being given order to investigate NEC (National Executive Council) by the stakeholders, which was not constitutional. They are supposed to conduct their responsibilities by themselves without any order by any person. That is to tell you there is interest in the investigation and the report does not tally with what they investigated,” he noted.
He also denied being invited by the SRC, claiming that the council only invited the PRO, the assistant secretary general and the vice president.
However, a letter inviting the president to SRC sitting was made available to this reporter.
All efforts to contact other executives impeached were futile.
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