By Olatunji Haleem
The recently impeached Vice President of the Students’ Union, University of Ibadan has revealed that some members of the House and some other active members of the Union demanded that she hand over some part of the N800,000 received by the Union from the Oyo State governor, Senator Ajimobi, aso their share.
This revelation was made few hours after she was impeached by the 6th Assembly of the Students’ Representatives Council, under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Onifade Bello, on Saturday 26 February, 2017.
Below are the excerpts from the discussion she had with UCJUI correspondents, which originally lasted for fourteen minutes, seventeen seconds.
“I have not had any issue with anybody before and since collecting money in my hands was the first, I accepted my fault but I expected them to have taken me to the disciplinary committee before suspension. I know that some other executives have had issues and they took them to the disciplinary committee, so I was wondering was it because I am a lady? Or is it that there is something political about the whole issue?”
“I wasn’t surprised that I was suspended the last time because some people came to meet me, even members of the House that I should give them money from Ajimobi’s money. But I was like Ajimobi’s money is not for anybody. I told them that to be sincere, this money is not something that is even enough that we are still doing 50-50 because the school authority has not given us money as they usually give. And some people threatened me that if I don’t give them money, they will make sure I get suspended. And what they said came to pass.”
“You cannot tell me that it is only the union that I should have in my life, you do other things aside from UCJ”
“Ever since I have been in the Students’ Union, every sitting that I have attended, I have always been sent an official letter. They did not invite me to this one. I asked Osas and he told me that there was no letter of invitation and since I had other things to do, I had to attend to them”
“I have had 3 meeting with the Disciplinary committee this year. They asked me to breakdown the way I spent Ajimobi’s money but I kept on hammering that why should I breakdown Ajimobi’s money when I already gave a report on how I spent all the income for the Students’ Union week of which almost everyone has a copy. And Ajimobi’s money is not a special money, it is sponsorship.”
“I know what hell fire I went through just to make sure that the Students’ Union week was the success it was, but nevertheless, I feel due procedures should have been taken. I did not come for the sitting because I wasn’t invited. The reason why I am doing this press statement is because I love my name. It will go places in future and I don’t want people to add my name to things that are untrue.”
“I know it is going to be very hard for me to change people’s mind because it is a matter of money and people never believe you when it comes to money matter. Whether they believe me or they don’t believe me, I don’t care. One person believes me, God.”
“If they want to separate Ajimobi’s money, they should have separated the money we got from One.org, from other companies to and not tell me that Ajimobi’s money is a special money.”
“Barack O’payne, Adedibu (not in the House, but a resident of Zik Hall) with some couple of people, they came to meet me, they even called my number several times and told me that where is their share from Ajimobi’s money and I told them that there is nothing like share. Why this think is paining me is because I don’t think every other person is seeing it the way I am seeing it, I just feel if you really want to serve, you should serve.”
“They (Disciplinary committee) requested for receipt from me, I showed them. I showed Honorable Ebenezer and Osasona, he is part of the disciplinary committee. We have not collected all the receipt for some particular reasons. In the report that we submitted, it is evident that we are owing some people money and for you to know, some of these people have been calling Osasona, the Speaker of the House, they have even had meeting with them. Some of them even went to the Bursar’s office to tell them that we are owing them money. But they said that they would not release receipt until we pay them their balance.”
“When Ajimobi money came, we were owing more than two million naira, so we pay the ones we could quickly pay. That was close to exam period, I could not read because some people would call you, that if you receive those calls, you would be cr. That was close to exam period, I could not read because some people would call you, that if you receive those calls, you would be crying for me.”
“So I had to pay them part of their money because that will calm them down. So, they are to get their balance when the school pays us. I went to a meeting on the 18th of February 2017, to see the VC with some principal officers of the Union, on top of this money issue. The VC told us that he promised that in a forthnight, he even told them that I have been disturbing him a lot even while I was suspended.”
“Even if the impeach or suspend, I will keep having guilty conscience because it was because of me that the accepted the Union to owe them, they don’t know anybody in the Union”
“I told the Disciplinary Committee that once the school gives us money, we will use it to pay the remaining debt so we can get the receipt.”
“The Disciplinary committee asked me how I spent the Ajimobi’s money. The first question I asked them was that why is it that Ajimobi’s money is pertinent in this issue. Why don’t you just ask me how I spent the whole money. I was actually angry. I am human so I am bound to be angry at some issues. And they were like that it would be better for me to breakdown how I spent Ajimobi’s money and I told them that the report already explained how I spent the entire money, not Ajumobi’s money but I said if you want me to start racking my head, to remember the ones that I can remember, I told them the ones I could. Everything is in the report in which I made simple.”
“My problem is what exactly do they want?”, she said.
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