Academic Misers: How Federal University Lokoja Slashed N233 Million TETFund For Administrative Building.

Secret Reporters

The wind of Corruption may have finally blown to Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State as part of the N233,651,008.50 ( Two Hundred and Thirty-Three Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-One Thousand, Eight Naira, Fifty Kobo ) allocated and approved by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund ( TETFUND) for the construction of a four Storey administrative building may have disappeared into individual pockets as contained in documents seen by SecretReporters.

The documents showed that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) in a letter dated 7th April 2014 with Ref No TETFUND UNIV/LOKOJA/SP2014/VOL 1 approved and instructed that N233, 651,008.50 (Two Hundred and Thirty-Three Million, Six Hundred and Fifty One Thousand, Eight Naira, Fifty Kobo) be used for the construction of a four-storey administrative office building comprising of 57 rooms, four seminar rooms, security rooms, toilets, and other external works.

However, in a clear breach of financial regulations and the procurement act, the Federal University Lokoja, one of the nine Federal Universities established in 2011 by the Federal Government, from its 2018 annual report built and constructed a two-storey building with 39 rooms in contravention of the specifications contained in the approval letter.

Following the unauthorized variation of contract, it was also revealed that the public University located in the confluence city of Lokoja awarded contracts worth N156,956,310 ( One Hundred and Fifty-Six Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty-Six Thousand, Three Hundred and Ten Naira ) without due process.

The contracts we learned was approved by TETFUND for the procurement of furniture and other equipment to be installed in some departmental offices and two lecture theater.

According to a 2018 audit report by the Auditor general’s office, necessary documents such as newspaper advertisement, quotations, and receipts were not presented for audit verification by the University, as there was no response from the academic misers who undoubtedly now have an acquired taste for corruption after ten years of its establishment.