OsunDefender Online Version November 27, 2019

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WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 27 - THURSDAY DECEMBER 05, 2019

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VOL. 14. NO.14

ISSN: 0794-8050

N100

A First Year Thrust •A Path-Breaking Investment Summit Economic Review And Outlook Page 23 - 26 NEWS

Agent Accuses Tenant Of Threat To Life, Police Of Bias - Page 39

Female Corps Member Acquires Land For Farming, Gets NYSC Award - Page 41

Exposed: Students Duped Colleagues, Management Of N26m School Fees At Osun Health Tech

By Solomon Odeniyi

S

OME students of the Osun State College of Health Technology, Ilesa, have been alleged of defrauding fellow students of their school fees, thereby denying the authority of maximum revenue generation.

It was gathered that and having collected the the suspects do approach money, they returned fresh and returning with a stamped bank students, who want to teller to the unsuspecting pay school fees with a victims. promise to help facilitate Findings showed that the payment at the bank many of the victims, after

One of the suspects, who felt cheated with the share of the crime proceed given to him, reportedly leaked the secret to a student who had already given his money to another agent for payment. collecting the bank tellers given to them would

proceed to the bursary department for

presentation, only to find out that they have brought fake teller.

Most of those alleged to be involved in the fraud scheme were said to be students of Health Information Department with four major coordinators while others are just mules.

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the school account is domiciled with the state

government owned bank, where the suspects allegedly picked tellers with which the unsuspecting students were duped.

However, one of the suspects, who felt cheated with the share of the crime proceed given to him, reportedly leaked the secret to a student who had already given his money to another agent for payment.

After his money was Continue on page 2

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WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 27 - THURSDAY DECEMBER 05, 2019

Exposed: How Students Duped Colleagues, Management Of N26m School Fees At Osun Health Tech Continued from frontpage

refunded, the matter was reported to the school authority, which later sought its statement of account from the bank.

Having discovered that many students did not remit their fees into the account, the management pasted the names of affected students to know their status.

However, the students could not volunteer information for fear of being hunted by the school authority, as many of them believe they are still within the reach of the authority, especially with regards to their results and certificate.

But one of the affected students, John Odediran disclosed to OSUN DEFENDER that about 200 students have been defrauded which could amounts to N26 million by estimation.

Odediran said he had already been on practical work before his name was listed among those who were said not to have paid school fees.

Another student who pleaded anonymity disclosed that many students had gone to report the matter at a police station in Ilesa, where one of the suspects, Olaniran Olaniyi, reached an agreement with the victims to refund their monies gradually.

It was also gathered that when the said Olaniyi was accosted by a parent to return the money he collected, he demanded the name of the student, saying the student could be one of those he had returned half of their monies.

A parent whose child victim of the scam, Mr Kayode Folorunsho, said “What baffles me most is how the school changed the tellers into a receipt without detecting the fraud and for years, the syndicates had been perpetrating the illegality.

“My concern is, if the school is not bothered about the situation, government should help look into the matter with a view to bringing the suspects to justice, to deter others from perpetrating similar act in the future.”

Speaking on the matter, a former student

of the school, Mr Aderibigbe Simiyu, said he was aware of the scandal, alleging the school management of being lackadaisical on it.

Simiyu said: “The students are afraid to come out and tell you their plight because of what the school might do in respect of their results at the end of their study.

How would some students be duping their colleagues and the school management is aware without taking any step?

“The authority refused to set up a panel to investigate the matter until the affected students reported the case to the police, yet no attempt was made to investigate the fraud.

“Even after discovering that the fees were not paid into the school account and despite that school receipts were issued after presentation by the bursary department, the authority is not moved to find out how the syndicate perpetrated

Frontage of Osun State Health Technology, Ilesa.

their activities.”

However, when contacted for reaction, the Provost, Dr. Fritz F. Olaoye denied knowledge of any act of illegality going on in the school.

He, however, added that the school does not engage the service of a

third party to collect its fees from students, saying that it gave specific instructions to students on how to pay tuition and other fees.

Olaoye said: “I was not aware of what you’re saying. However, if there is any Niyi who is said to have collected money

from somebody, I believe he did not do it on behalf of the school. What the school did was to give admission and give people where they will pay fees and other as directed by the government. All the school needs is to verify if they have paid the fees.

If they have not paid the fees, the school will need to tell them to go and pay.

“What I am saying is that I am not aware of this, but I will make sure I go to the bursary department to know if anything of sort has happened.”

NBM Says Controversies On Donations To Osun Police Command Needless

T

HE leadership of the Neo Black Movement of Africa in the state of Osun has described as needless, the controversies surrounding donations of road shelters to Osun Police Command.

Leader of the NBM in Osun, Mr Akindele

Famokun, in an exclusive chat with OSUN DEFENDER, said the donations were made in January this year to assist

‘Those Supporting Social Media Regulation Are Afraid Of Being Exposed’ Yusuf Oketola

T

HE Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo, Most Reverend John Oyejola, has chided the supporters of Anti-social media bill in Nigeria, stating that only those who were afraid of being exposed would want the social media to be regulated.

Oyejola who spoke at a last Friday, urged the book launch programme legislative arm of to of the Diocese in Osogbo, government

Bishop John Oyejola

concentrate on making laws that would make life meaningful to the people.

According to Oyejola, there is no reason for anyone to try to limit people’s freedom, noting that there were important things begging for the attention of the legislature.

He said: “A lot of people have no jobs, let them (lawmakers) tell us what they are doing to make job available to our teeming unemployed youths. What have they done about improving the standard of education? The antisocial media bill is not important for now.

“I only feel that they are just afraid of being exposed by those who have facts and would not be restricted to tell others with the help of the social media platforms. It is not that they are concerned about our well-being as we are being made to believe.”

traffic wardens in the discharge of their duties.

Famokun stated that the group was neither violent nor condone criminality, saying its goals remain pan Africanism, blackism, intellectual radicalism, negritude and reform of some traditional African religion with the moto “Social Justice and Equality for All.” A picture showing some members of NBM making donation to the police in the state had gone viral on the social media, with many people speaking against collection of gifts from such group by the police.

Making clarification on the donations, Famokun explained that the items were donated in January this year as part of a year

Osun CP, Abiodun Ige

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anniversary of the group in the state.

He added that two of the shelters were donated to Ilesha Area Command, while two of the items were donated to the Police State Command in Osogbo.

He said: “we were shocked to see pictures taken during our donation to the police command in Osun being misinterpreted. We are law abiding Nigerians.

Our group was registered in 1994.

“On the day the donation was made, we were received by top police officers in the command. The items were received in the premises of Osun police command.

“No one should see us as miscreants. We are not cultists, we should not be linked to any criminal group. Our group is known globally.”

On how to join the group, Famokun said an intending member must be a student of tertiary institution with good academic standing.

F a m o t o k u n maintained that people with criminal records, ex convicts or drug abusers could not be part of the group, as its leadership conduct periodic check on members.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 27 - THURSDAY DECEMBER 05, 2019

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WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 27 - THURSDAY DECEMBER 05, 2019

For Legacy T

HERE is a fellow on Facebook. He has a name, of course. But he remains nameless, as millions of hate-drenched others, that poison the polity with excess hate and bile.

He has no life - beyond traducing others, grumbling and howling: Aregbesola has done this; Oyetola has not done that. His whole life, all his waking hours, all his laboured sleep, are devoted to not having a life; not having a name.

But public office is all about having a name - a name etched in the mind of the appreciative people, from developmental programmes that have changed their lives for good. It is called legacy, branded in the hearts of your people.

That is the golden challenge before Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, of the State of Osun. He should continue with the core developmental strides of the Rauf Aregbesola’s era; an era which, as the quiet but ubiquitous chief of staff, Oyetola counted among the potent brain boxes.

Yes, it’s a golden challenge. But that gold won’t come without a lot of soot.

The good thing though is as an integral member of the old, the Governor is well placed to scale new heights in the new.

But back to the name and nameless metaphor.

Before 2010, Osun was “nameless” in any case, among the high developmental players. It seemed satisfied with playing the poorer cousin to Oyo (from which it was carved); or even like Ekiti (without Ondo’s access to some petro dollars), staying mute and placid: the quiet hinterland economic backwater and “unfortunate relative” to Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest economy; and South West’s undisputed economic dynamo.

But that namelessness began to change from November 2010. Ironically, Osun had hit its socio-economic nadir, no thanks to a disputed 2007 gubernatorial election that got resolved almost four years later; and a vegetative economy that laid the state prostrate with mass poverty and general disorientation.

Entered Rauf Aregbesola with his street magnet and hot passion for development, and Oyetola, chief of staff and captain of the lean and mean army of the Osun

policy suite, a race against time that would question old routines and impose a new paradigm sending not a few howling and cursing in the streets, had begun!

Osun has been the better for it.

A data-driven 2019 book, entitled Development Performance Ranking of Nigerian States and Monitoring of African Countries, by Prof. Mohammed Taofeek Ibrahim, a professor of community medicine, just declared Osun the overall best performing Nigerian state, “based on average score of all the selected development indicators.”

The Top 10 states, including the FCT, are: Osun, Lagos, Anambra, Ekiti, FCT Abuja, Abia, Imo, Kwara, Edo and Kogi.

Now, this ranking shows how hopelessly the Nigerian media have veered from quality development reporting, hugging instead, sensation and titillation; and misdirecting the people to no end.

Aside from Edo, a marginal oilproducing state, none of the oil aristocrats, of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, made the Top 10, in dataled development strides. Pray, what do they do with their 13 per cent derivation cash?

Then, Kogi. From sensational media reports and, to be fair, generally blighted physical infrastructure, that state would

OBSERVATION

BY OLAKUNLE ABIMBOLA

appear the very anti-development Armageddon. Yet, it made the elite developmental Top 10. That shows it must be doing some quiet work, which the sensation-loving press wouldn’t be bothered about.

Osun, on the other hand, rides the crest of elite developers, putting the bulk of its scarce funds, at the service of the majority of the people, especially the poor and the extremely vulnerable.

Prof. Ibrahim’s new book validates the rightness of the Osun

developmental strategy, despite the din over the salary payment crisis, during which the media scapegoated the state, for a pan-Nigeria economic crunch, no thanks to reckless mismanagement by the Goodluck Jonathan presidency.

Yet, despite this general meltdown, Osun kept faith with its development covenant with its masses, even if the tiny elite minority, of civil servants and partisan opponents, aided by a demonizing media, barked and growled to no end.

From that hard and harsh era has come the Osun schools feeding programme, which not only bonded with the bulk of the future generation, by catering for their educational and nutritional needs; but by also empowering the parents of these poor kids, as crop and animal farmersuppliers, of tubers, meat and fish; and as caterers, food vendors and the likes.

That critical social infrastructure and empowerment scheme is now being mainstreamed as a critical national social democratic policy, for the first time in Nigerian history, in an admirable race against time, to conquer poverty.

Besides, futuristic roads and glittering schools, that romped Osun from its hitherto virtual Stone Age facilities, its lot in 2010, also sprang up. Less than a year as governor, despite the arch-distraction from litigations following the 2018 Osun gubernatorial election, Governor Oyetola has added a state-wide general refurbishment of Osun primary health facilities, so central and critical to rural areas, where the majority of the poor and vulnerable are scattered.

It is no wonder then that, in Prof.

Ibrahim’s books, over 18 development performance indicators, ranging from percentages of literate men and women,

“

Before 2010, Osun was “nameless” in any case, among the high developmental players. It seemed satisfied with playing the poorer cousin to Oyo (from which it was carved);

”

access to electricity, access to improved drinking water, to men and women employed in continuity and births delivered by a doctor, Osun amassed a 64.4 % score, more than any state in the federation.

In comparing development performance indicators between the 36 Nigerian states and the FCT Abuja, Osun ranked among the Top 10, in 12 out of 18 indices. No wonder: Osun nicked the top in “comparisons of average % development performance scores across states and FCT”, leaving Anambra (second) and Lagos (third), trailing.

But the actual gold medal would come - in “Ranking of development performance status of Nigerian states and FCT”: Osun, despite its challenge of funding, topped; followed by Lagos, the economic dynamo, and Anambra.

Our Facebook cynic would still growl and wail, hankering after faults even when there are little or even none; perhaps until his own children, seeing something diametrically different from possessed Daddy, begin to question his sanity. That is the way - and fate- of nameless people.

But that social democratic, core development path, is where Governor Oyetola must tread, branding his name, in the mind and consciousness, of a happy and appreciative people.

That would be the making of solid legacy - even if a hostile and sensational media wail and cry, scream and yell, kick and scruff.

OSUN DEFENDER is published by Moremi Publishing House Limited, Promise Point Building, Opposite Guaranty Trust Bank GTB, Gbongan Road, Osogbo, State of Osun.

All correspondence to the Deputy Editor, ISMAEEL UTHMAN, Telephone: 0805-121-2204, usmanismail001@yahoo.com. ISSN: 0794-8050.Website: www.osundefender.org., E-mail: osundefenderbank@gmail.com, osundefender@yahoo.com