• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Ekiti SUBEB bank account flagged on suspected contract scams

Fayemi

All is not well in the Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) as an attempt by the Chairman, Francisca Aladejana (Prof), to expose what she thought was contracts scam perpetrated by the immediate past administration of Ayodele Fayose, has boomeranged, leading to invitation of top officials of the agency to Abuja.

Also, the bank account of Ekiti SUBEB is also said to have been flagged while some of its top officials have been invited to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in Abuja for questioning.

Sources in the know confided in our correspondent that the SUBEB chairman, had discovered when she assumed office that contracts worth close to N1 billion were hurriedly awarded, with one single company getting more than 30.

The contracts were allegedly sold to third parties at exorbitant rate of 35 percent making execution of the jobs difficult.

“Those who bought the contracts paid 35 percent of the contracts sum to the account of a single company (name withheld), which was used as front for two top officials of the State Government,” the source said.

Aladejana, had petitioned the UBEC in Abuja and also copied the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with the mindset that those in the civil service awarded the contracts.

“The chairman had petitioned UBEC in Abuja before she realised that the contracts may have been awarded by appointees of the current state governor, Kayode Fayemi.

“When Fayemi got to know about the steps taken by Aladejana, the governor was so livid that he threatened to sack the chairman if not for prompt intervention of his wife, Erelu Bisi Fayemi,” a source said.

Another source said the SUBEB Permanent Secretary, Olusesan Fabamise was summoned to Abuja two weeks ago to explain how the contracts were awarded.

It should be recalled that the SUBEB in Ekiti State ran into troubled waters during the first tenure of Governor Fayemi.

Then,  Fayemi’s administration had gotten the Federal Government to pay its own matching grant by obtaining N852, 936,783.12 loan from Access Bank on November 25, 2013 without perfecting documentation in respect of the loan, thereby flouting the provisions of Section 11(2) of the UBEC Act, 2004.

UBEC, in a letter dated April 16, 2015, with Reference Number; UBEC/FA/SUBEB/EK/183/Vol.II/162 described the withdrawal as a criminal act that violated Section 11(2) of UBE Act 2004 and conveyed its suspension of Ekiti State from accessing any further FGN-UBE Intervention Fund.

 

Mark Mayah