•Sorry state of Bayelsa federal polytechnic
From a citadel of learning, the Federal Polytechnic, Ekowe, the only polytechnic owned by the Federal Government in Bayelsa, the state of President Goodluck Jonathan, has gradually become the Ivory Towers of decay, corruption and confusion.
The polytechnic is located on the bank of the River Nun in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. It has a mandate to produce middle and high level manpower in Aqua Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Applied and Enviromental Science programmes.
The institution’s journey to destruction started last year during the tenure of its former Rector, Dr. Eneyi Ekpebu. The school then erupted with allegations of financial fraud against Ekpebu and the then bursar, Mr. James Neminebor.
The school was said to have only admitted 48 students since its establishment in 2009. Despite its lean student population, the school reportedly maintained 100 employees on its payroll.
It was discovered that the institution might have been crippled by inefficient management and perhaps gross and deliberate financial misappropriation. It was as if some persons vowed to destroy the institution by making it their personal cash cow.
Irked by the development, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics (SSANP), engaged Ekpebu, the bursar and other management staff in a protracted labour dispute.
The union wrote petitions to the then Supervising Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, detailing the woes of the institution and calling on him to bring sanity to the polytechnic.
They complained among other things of infrastructural decay, unpaid arears of salaries, allowances, minimum wage, first 28 days allowance and implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and pension scheme.
Maybe, as some persons said, the minister was embroiled in the politics of Rivers State and turned deaf ears to the cries of SSANP. Ekowe continued to burn. The crisis claimed its first casualty, Mr. Frank Moses, a 35-year-old senior administrative employee of the institution.
Moses was assassinated in his home in Yenagoa. SSANP accused the rector of killing Moses alleging that the deceased became a target for exposing N1bn fraud in the institution and for dragging the rector to court over allegations of embezzlement.
Petitions were further written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) by the union. Ekowe suddenly became a campus of reproach as officials of the anti-graft agencies turned their satellite on it.
In fact, officials of the institution including the former Rector, Dr. Douglas Ekpebu, were summoned by the EFCC. They were invited to appear before the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as part of investigations into alleged financial scam in the polytechnic.
Ekpebu was requested to come along with the institution’s Bursar, Mr. James Neminebor; Head of Audit, Mr. Denson Ojigbare; Mr. Abadani Woyengikuro; and Mr. Zechariah Owutuamor.
A letter of invitation dated January 20, 2014, and signed by the EFCC’s Zonal Head, Mr. David Inyang, said the rector and other officials would be interrogated by the Officer in charge of Economic Governance.
The letter reads: “This office is currently investigating a case involving your school in which the need to obtain certain clarifications from you and some of your officers have become imperative.”
The letter also requested them to come along with a list of academic and non-academic employees showing their ages, sex, state of origin among other things from 2009 till date.
The rector and others were also requested to furnish the agency with the list of all contracts awarded and executed by the institution from 2009 to date.
The contract list, according to the invitation, must show “contract sum, contract type, date of award, status, contractors, locations, award letters and bill of quantities.” Other requirements are “mode of payment, vouchers, cash books, income and expenditure, and cheques from 2009 to date.”
The investigations continued until Ekpebu proceeded on his terminal leave after the expiration of his tenure.
The Governing Council, on February 20, appointed Mrs. Emilian Bribena as Acting Rector. Bribina, before her appointment, was the Librarian.
Despite the change in the mantle of leadership, the rot in Ekowe has festered. Sadly, the institution has been abandoned and it was allowed to become a thick forest.
Now, administrative and academic activities are grounded at the school. Vegetation, long shrubs and grass have overgrown many buildings and facilities in the school. Some of the buildings are in disuse and are locked.
Academic, non-academic, senior and junior members of staff are no longer reporting for duty at the polytechnic.
“The ugly situation has left the students in a very terrible condition in the campus,” a source, who pleaded for anonymity, said.
“The school clinic is locked up due to the fact that all the drugs have expired. No lectures are going on, there’s no medicare and what have you,” he added.
Indeed, indications emerged during the week that Ekowe was going from bad to worse. The acting rector’s desire to bring changes to the university appears to have been frustrated by a cabal. The acting rector was said to have uncovered a grand conspiracy to keep the polytechnic wailing in its knees. She has petitioned the EFCC in respect of the discovery.
The acting rector in the petition accused the Acting Registrar, Mr. Woyengkuro Abadani; the Bursar, Mr. James Nimenebo, whose tenure was said to have expired; the immediate past Registrar, Mr. Williabo Apelebiri and the Chairman and some members of the Governing Council of conniving to swindle the institution of funds running into hundreds of millions of naira without her knowledge and authority.
The petition was dated October 23 and titled, “Petition on Gross Mismanagement and Embezzlement of the Funds of Federal Polytechnic Ekowe and addressed to the Zonal Head, EFCC, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
She alleged that the bursar cunningly made himself the compulsory signatory to the polytechnic accounts right from the beginning of her appointment in order to perpetuate the embezzlement of the school’s funds.
She said : “They have made the functioning of the Polytechnic difficult due to the cabal and syndicate this trio – the Chairman of Council, the Bursar and the present falsely appointed Ag. Registrar have formed.
“Sir, it may interest your Commission to note that the Chairman of Governing Council never responded to any of the distress calls or letters written for his intervention as Chairman of Council because he is their backbone and the kingpin behind the financial woes of the Federal Polytechnic.
“The bursar should produce my approvals for every withdrawal he has made so far for salary and overhead accounts and other accounts of the Polytechnic.
“By Section 9, Sub-section 2 of the Polytechnic Act, Laws of the Federation 1993, ‘the Bursar is responsible to the Office of the Rector for the day-to-day administration and control of the financial affairs of the Polytechnic’.
“In order to fulfill the tenements of administrative law, I issued the Bursar queries and even reminder without any response. I have also chronicled these developments to different federal quarters without any immediate response.”
She added that the trio held a kangaroo tender board meeting, awarded contracts to themselves and later tried to force her to sign the document.
“ I humbly petition that the finances of the Polytechnic be investigated between January 20, 2014 to date. That the Bursar should bring all his financial books and approvals given to every withdrawal and posting/transfer he has made so far.
“The Bursar has ceased being the Bursar of the Polytechnic as his tenure expired since 27th of September, 2014 without any renewal known to me.
“By regulation, he was meant to have proceeded three (3) months to this time on terminal leave. I have directed him to handover to the next most senior officer in his department (Mr. Steve Otobo) in writing but he has refused to hand over because he wants to continue in his craft with his cohorts”, she said.
She prayed the commission to apprehend the suspects and prosecute them for fraudulent conversion of Polytechnic funds and for misrepresenting her as being present in a crucial Tenders Board meeting as the Chairperson of that board to award hundreds of millions to their personal companies whereas she was not present at that purported meeting.
She insisted that the persons mentioned in the petition should be prosecuted for the forgery of documents relating to the tender meeting; gross misconduct and abuse of their offices as public office holders against anti-graft laws of the country.
She said: “They should be prosecuted for threat to my person and family by using different pseudo names and fake GSM numbers to send threat messages and threat calls to my family members due to my holding of the truth against them in terms of the financial crimes they commit and keep committing till this moment.
“And they have gone berserk now because I have written to freeze all the Polytechnic accounts.”
Following the moves by the rector to sanitise the institution, Niger Delta Report gathered that the the Chairman of the Governing Council was plotting to replace her.
But the students are appealing to President Goodluck Jonathan, the ministry of education and other responsible agencies to quickly wade into the crisis rocking the institution in the interest of their future.
They have also suggested radical change in management and maybe compulsory retirement and prosecution of persons accused of stalling institution’s progress. They have also asked the persons mentioned in the petition to explain their roles in the scam.
When contacted, the bursar, Mr. Mimenabo, asked the Niger Delta Report to direct its enquiries to the Public Relations Officer.
