•’They’ve started deducting from our salaries’
Seven hundred and seventy-one members of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, Staff Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society (CTCS), have urged the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to recover the N67 million allegedly mismanaged by past trustees of the society.
The members accused former president, treasurer and secretary (trustees) of giving out N90 million loans indiscriminately.
The former trustees are Folorunsho, Adekunle Samson and Salami Nurudeen.
Addressing members at its annual general meeting, the President, Dr. Ademola Ebeloku, said the lack of fiscal probity by past executives necessitated the invitation of ICPC officials to the institution in May.
He added: “Efforts of the present executives have proved futile because the invitation of ICPC to this institution in May has yielded no result. We are using this medium to inform ICPC chairman that the society is eager to get report on this matter.”
The Chairman, Implementation Committee on the Recovery of Mismanaged Funds, Dr. Emiola Olawale, said: “During investigation, we discovered money was missing.’’
‘’There was misappropriation of over N90 million. During investigation, it was discovered they gave people excess loans.
“We don’t know how to categorise that. But it was discovered the trustees; the president, the secretary and the treasurer gave themselves loans, which they cannot account for. No form was filled. At the end of investigation, the amount of money was put against them and they were asked to refund. They agreed to repay the money, but we could not get the money from their salary.
“That was what prompted us to go to EFCC and it directed us to ICPC. ICPC eventually came here and they looked at our books. They said we were lenient in the way we investigated it. That there was some money. That if they were to investigate, it would have been more than that amount of money. So at the end of the day, they did investigation, we expected a report from them. Till now, we have not heard anything.”
Reacting to the allegation on behalf of others, a man, simply identified as Wasiu said ICPC officials came and checked his exco’s records.
“The commission invited us and spent about three days with us, investigating. They went through our books. They said it was due to our negligence. That we should repay the money. We agreed and gave them an undertaking that we would pay N100,000 monthly and that when I finish repaying my First Bank loan, I will pay N200,000 monthly. They said I should bring a surety, which I did and they collected his international passport. I did not defraud the cooperative. I have been repaying them the money I did not spend,” he added.
Wasiu attributed their ordeal to a member of the society and a worker of the institution, who played a fast one on exco members.
Said he: “We were buying cars for members and other businesses. In the course of the business, there was a man, who is also a worker. He came to my office and said he knew about the business and that he wanted us to do it. That he had a brother in London who sent cars to him. That he would bring the cars to the school premises and that people bought cars from him. He asked workers to write out specifications of the cars they wanted to buy, supported with evidence of ability to pay. That was the pay slip. We set up a committee, which screened members. We then asked him to supply the cars to some of the successful members.”
Wasiu added: “When we got the cars, some of them did not match the specifications. Some, instead of automatic gears, had manual gears. So some of our members rejected them. That money was over N10 million at that time.
He said he would bring other cars for us. We believed him since he was a worker, not knowing he was lying. While we were pursuing that, a supplier came from Osogbo and said the cars supplied to us, the man collected them from him and that he owed them about N10 million. That we should pay. They said if we did not pay, they would arrest us and collect the cars from our members.
“We did not want him to tarnish our image.
“We contacted our worker, who supplied the cars. He said the allegation was true. We said we had to pay the people, but he ran away. When the problem started, the congress of our cooperative got to know of it. The congress appointed members to find out what happened during the period of my stewardship. They said the worker, who supplied the cars, had gone with the cooperative money. That it was due to our negligence. That the trustee would be responsible for the money. I said if this is the price of leadership, we will pay. So they transferred the liabilities to us.
“When they asked us how we were going to pay, I said I had a building and that I was already having First Bank loan, which was collected by many workers. That I will finish repayment this month. I told them that as soon as I finish repayment, I will increase my repayment from N100,000 to N200,000. I gave the President the letter since two weeks ago to increase my loan repayment to N200,000 and increase my savings from N5,000 to N10,000 monthly. I gave them the documents of my houses so that they can sell the house, but they said they will not sell the property of a member. I told them that if I sell it, I will bring the money.”
