Federal Poly Offa: ASUP decries N500m accreditation fraud
As the ongoing frosty relationship between the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, of the Federal Polytechnic Offa, and the management of the institution festers, the academic union has raised the alarm over what it described as the outrageous amount to be expended on the accreditation exercise of some departments in the institution.
The chairman of the union, Dr Idowu Atilola, in a statement on Monday on what he described as accreditation fraud, spoke of a memo from the Director of Academic Planning, Dr Waheed Oyelola Balogun, to the Rector.
“In this memo, the Director of Academic Planning was requesting N507,945,395 for the accreditation of 21 departments.
“The union’s insistence on being included in accreditation exercises is further justified by some of the unbelievable propositions as conspicuously spelt out in this memo. Of particular interest are these: The accreditation of 33 departments under Dr Kamoru Kadiri in 2023/2024 was said to have cost about N50,000,000.
“The Heads of Departments that will actually be going through the hurdle of the accreditation exercise are proposed to be only given N100,000, while N200,000 was allocated to deans who are supervisors.
“It must be noted that the deans and HODs are to get N7,200,000 from the over N500,000,000 in the proposal,” the union chairman further disclosed.
Dr Atilola argued that the monies allocated are unreasonably outrageous, alleging that “N50,000,000 was allocated to the Management and N20,000,000 allocated to the Governing Council.”
He further disclosed that “another memo from the rector to the governing council also came to our knowledge in which the rector requested for the same amount that was proposed by the Director of Academic Planning.”
ASUP alleged “the memos are unequivocal conspiracies by the Rector (Kamoru Kadiri) and Director of Academic Planning (Waheed Balogun) to siphon money from the polytechnic coffers, which consequently would be reasons for the continued degeneration of our institution when public funds are being carted away with such unequalled impunity.”
The union demanded transparency from position holders and vowed to pursue issues of indignity with vigour.
In another development, the Offa Poly ASUP kicked against an unlawful request by the rector in which he sought the governing council’s approval for entitlement packages for outgoing principal officers.
ASUP drew its members’ attention to the circular from the Ministry of Education of December 31, 2024 in which entitlement packages were expressly taken out of the purview of MDAs.
“It is also worthy of note that this circular was further re-emphasised by NBTE’s circular dated January 15, 2025 to all rectors,” it stated.
The union explained that “this request by the rector, despite an unambiguous decision on it by both the supervising ministry and regulatory authority (FME and NBTE), puts to question “the kind of management that is currently championing the affairs of our polytechnic.”
The union asserted that it is evident that the current management is not genuinely concerned about the welfare of staff or the progress of the institution, as they are dissipating tremendous efforts towards personal enrichment.
“The Union is resolute on bringing genuine staff welfare and institutional advancement to top priority by all means necessary,” it added.
The union advised the governing council not to unconsciously be lured into becoming an accessory to illegality.
Federal Poly Offa: ASUP decries N500m accreditation fraud
