Oloyede Denies N3bn Fraud Allegation

Oloyede, who threatened legal action “against the authors of the campaign of calumny against me and their willing collaborators,” said he had never collected a bribe before.

The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has described as blatant lies allegations of corruption levelled against him by the Academic Staff Union of Universities in its petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

He said, “I am extremely selective in accepting gifts from even personal friends. My needs are limited and my legitimate income is sufficient to spend on my volunteer work. I have never in my life collected bribe, inflated contracts, extorted anyone nor accepted gifts beyond ‘Thank you greeting cards’ from any contractor, dead or alive.”

ASUU had in its petition to the EFCC accused the JAMB Registrar and the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin, Prof. Abdulganiyu Ambali, of involvement in an alleged N3bn fraud, saying they benefitted from contract inflation and kick-backs from contractors.

But Oloyede, in a statement in Abuja, said he would not have dignified the petitioners with any response but for “the need to thwart the satanic objective of distracting me from the national assignment which they protested against but failed.”

He said, “This statement is just to re-assure my admirers that the allegations against me are like pure wind with no solidity. I remain who I have ever been by the special grace of Allah, the Almighty. Given the avalanche of text messages, mails and phone calls I have received from all over the world, I realise that if I do not set the records straight, at least for those who believe in me and what I represent, like Dr. Mahfouz Adedimeji of UNILORIN, whose appreciated intervention was on point, I might not be fair to them.

“I do not claim perfection as it is the exclusive preserve of the Almighty Allah, but I dare say I stand on a higher moral pedestal than ‘the 49 liars’ and their masters. God will continue to keep them busy and they shall continue to lament their failure at UNILORIN and in life precipitated by their own inner insolvency. The barking of dogs does not affect the flight of a plane.

“The Pension Act of 2004 provided that 7.5 per cent of emoluments should be deducted from staff salaries and remitted into their Retirement Savings Accounts with Pension Fund Administrators. Most universities, including the University of Ilorin, based the calculation of 7.5 per cent on basic salary and transport allowance. This was the case between July 2004 and December 2006 before I became the vice-chancellor. I know no PFA and if salaries were deducted and saved in employees’ accounts, I would not be the beneficiary.”