Elizade University Clarifies Detention of Vice Chancellor

The authorities of the Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin have made further clarifications and provided some background information on why the Vice Chancellor of the University Prof. ‘Kunle Oloyede is being detained by the police.

According to a statement by the Public Relations Department of the University, in January 2015, Prof. Oloyede visited the University ahead of his September 2015 appointment date, as the second substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University.

During this visit, he saw the new 500-bed space male hostel project which contract had just been awarded for N475m (Four hundred and seventy five million naira only) and the Contractor had mobilized to site. However, Prof. ‘Kunle Oloyede advised and persuaded the University’s Founder, Chief Ade. Ojo to discontinue with the conventional construction of the project and adopt a new technique called PIR Panel building technology, as according to him, this technology would be faster, that is, the building would be ready by

August 2015, while also saving 40% of the total cost of conventional construction. The Founder agreed to adopt the PIR Panel building technology believing that the hostel would be ready by August, 2015 ahead of students’ resumption in September 2015. The total cost of constructing the 512-bed space hostel, using the PIR Panel building technology was put at about $1.8m (One million and eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars only). The building was meant to be constructed by an Australian based company; Duro Global PTY Ltd., which was introduced to the Founder by Prof. ‘Kunle Oloyede. Prof. Oloyede had also claimed that he is a partner in the company.

Based on the advice of Prof. ‘Kunle Oloyede, the Founder transferred the total sum of $1,120,000.00 (One million, one hundred and twenty thousand U.S. dollars only) to the account of Duro Global PTY Ltd. between March and July 2015. However, when the Founder noticed that the steel and panel for the construction were not forthcoming, he complained to Prof. Oloyede, who then asked to be issued the power-of-attorney to act on behalf of the Founder in Australia. The Founder believed that Prof. Oloyede would ably represent him as promised and gave him the power-of-attorney as requested.

After the power-of-attorney had been given to Prof. Oloyede, he requested the Founder to send the balance of $650,000.00 (Six hundred and fifty thousand U.S. dollars only) into his personal account to enable him procure the remaining materials for the building from either China or South Korea in case Duro Global PTY Ltd failed to perform. The Founder transferred the money into Prof. Oloyede’s personal account in Australia but to the Founder’s dismay, Prof. Oloyede informed him that he later paid the $650,000.00(Six hundred and fifty thousand U.S. dollars only) into Duro Global’s account, even when it was obvious that the company had not performed.

Up until this date, only seven containers of incomplete steel have been supplied to the University. According to the statement, all efforts made by the Founder and the Board of Trustees of the University to get Prof. Oloyede and his Partners; Duro Global PTY Ltd. to fulfill the terms of the contract have not yielded any result. Specifically, on October 4, 2016, the Board of Trustees gave Prof. Oloyede a ninety (90) day ultimatum to move the project to a substantial level of execution. Unfortunately, this ultimatum did not produce any result as nothing was done even at this moment.

The failed project had caused Elizade University a lot of harm in terms of the extra cost of constructing another male hostel at a cost of about N1,000,000,000 (One billion naira).

When it became obvious that Prof. Oloyede could not offer meaningful explanation for the prolonged delay, the Founder then lodged a complaint to the State Police Command with a view to resolving the
issue. The VC was arrested by the Police and arraigned before a Magistrate Court in Akure.

To date, the total sum of $1,770,000 (One million, seven hundred and seventy thousand U.S. dollars only) which has been paid for the hostel project, has been directly provided by the Founder of the University.