Osun Resident Calls For Babalola’s Probe Over Alleged Corruption, Misconduct

A Public Analyst, Iludunmade Oguntoye, has called for the probe of a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun State, Peter Babalola, alleging him of misconduct and corruption as the governing council chairman of Osun State College of Education, Ila-Orangun.

In a petition addressed to the PDP Chairman, Sunday Bisi, on Thursday, 29th August 2024, Oguntoye alleged Babalola of committing gross misconduct and fraud.

According to the petition, Babalola’s leadership style was characterized by intimidation, corruption, and deceit.

Babalola was alleged to have assumed office without a board and single-handedly made decisions, dishing out instructions like a “Major General of the Syria’s Army.”

He noted that Babalola’s tenure was marked by allegations of bribery, fraud, and diversion of funds. He allegedly collected N500,000 monthly as operational costs and N6 million by the end of August 2024, without accounting for the expenses.

The petition also accused him of mismanaging accreditation funds and diverting over N66 million, leading to an investigation by the ICPC.

The petition further alleged that Babalola interfered in the internal affairs of the college, issuing orders on staff to be queried or sacked, and meddling in the appointment of principal officers. He allegedly collected kickbacks from contractors and influenced the award of contracts.

“I want to let you know that coming on board Mr Peter Babalola was more of a curse to the institution than a blessing as many legacies were destroyed, and many families were wrongly accused, sacked and disgraced. How do I mean?

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“Let me start from the issue of the suspended Provost, Prof Jimoh Atanda Afolabi, who was sacked by the council led by Peter Babalola on the baseless allegations of concealment of information to the Chairman of council. The man was put on suspension, and since then, no dime has been paid to him as salary, even up till now, as against the extant law of public service. You may not know, Sir, when an officer is suspended, he is entitled to half of his salary for a maximum period of 3 months, after which, if nothing is found against him, he will be reinstated back with his full salary.

“Mr Peter collected N500k per month as operational cost as approved by the office of SSG. By my calculation, he has gotten N6m by the end of August 2024 apart from his statutory allowances as the chairman of the board. This money is supposed to be reimbursable expenses. He needs to retire this money to show how he used the funds in the last 12 months. This is an issue to be looked into.

“Mr Peter’s scholarship for 1000 students never materialised as he failed woefully after a year to fulfil his promises. The students who were lured into the scam refused to pay their school fees, insisting that the Chairman promised them to settle their school fees when they were offered the admissions. This has negatively affected the fortunes of that institution as of now.

“Information has it that the present Management and the former chairman, Mr. Peter Babalola, are presently facing an investigation on fraud and diversion of over N66m of accreditation funds of the college.

“The funds were said to have been mismanaged by the current Bursar, Mr. Ojo Akintunde and the former Chairman of Council. Information further confirmed that Mr. Peter has forfeited and refunded a lot of funds to the ICPC’s office, while Ojo Akintunde has been a regular visitor to the Osogbo office of the ICPC. Not only that, Ojo Akintunde, Bursar, was equally prosecuted by the ICPC Osogbo office for expending over N8m just for the preparation of the Budget of the College.

“It is confirmed that Mr Peter had instructed Mr Akintunde to raise the fund to N8m in order to do PR for some government functionaries. But Mr Peter pocketed the whole money into his own purse. All these allegations are verifiable. This is an issue to be looked into.”