…accuses three TETfund officials of siphoning his N10M fees,vows to seek EFCC’s prosecution
A Doctorate candidate currently on TETFund scholarship at the Girne American University Cyprus, Kamal Saka-Odunjo has opened a can of worms on the allegation that over 500 Migerian foreign scholars have since been stranded abroad owing to TETfund’s alleged omission of their names in the recent disbursement of the presidential bailout funds provided by President Bola Tinubu to save the scholars from losing their studentship in various foreign universities.
Our Investigation gathered that over 500 of the said scholars are currently the Covid 19 lockdown and skyrocketing rise in exchange rate between Dollar and Naira which had devalued the Nigerian currency was responsible for the plight the poor scholars ere pounded into.
Blaming TETfund for the continued suffering of the scholars abroad, Sala-Odunjo who narrated his ordeal to us, said : “
I started my study in 2021, and the programme is to last for 8 academic semesters, making 4 years duration.
As at the time my sponsorship Award was granted, the Naira exchange rated was at #131 to a US Dollar in 2021, but as I speak today everybody knows that the current exchange rate is over #1,500 to a US Dollar.
This condition has made cost of living so difficult and almost unbearable for all TETFund foreign scholars who are experiencing the same situation.
“It was on the basis of this financial hardship the foreign scholars were prompted to seek financial support in terms of bailout from Mr. President, which was graciously approved for all categories of TETFund foreign scholars who embarked on their foreign studies between year 2020-2023 as they are all victims of this disturbing financial hardship.
“However, it was a rude shock to large number of scholars as TETFund came up with some ridiculous criteria for selecting who are qualified for the payment in which a greater number of Scholars almost 600 were deliberately Omitted by describing them not eligible fir the payment based of parochial condition adopted to willfully exclude our colleagues.
“Our agitation for unconditional payment of the approved bailout to all TETFund foreign scholars was based on a clear understanding that the indecent decision to exclude our names from the bailout payment was indefensible, illogical and an intention to loot money meant for those 600 Omitted scholars.
“Based on personal experience. We are not unaware that some of TETFund staff are corrupt and have repeated records of looting tendencies. My PhD sponsorship Award Grant was approved on 11/11 year 2020.
My study was scheduled to start in January 2021. But, due to two reasons, I could not leave Nigeria until October 2021: The first reason was TETFund’s delay in the payment of the initial tuition deposit, having been mandated by my university in Cyprus as a condition for issuing the acceptance letter that will allow me to travel down to Cyprus. Though, after several correspondence and explanations, the initial tuition deposit of a total sum of Euro 3,622.50 was paid out of Euro 8, 872.50 approved for my tuition in the Award letter, with a promise that the remaining tuition balance of Euro 5,250 will be offset when I get to Cyprus.
“The 2nd reason was COVID-19, which caused a travel ban until it was lifted before I could travelled in October 2021. Unfortunately, during course registration of my 2nd semester in May year 2022, it was realized that the money left in my school account was not enough to register the number of required courses for that semester.
“Then, on reaching back to TETFund for the payment of the outstanding tuition, it was a rude shock to hear from one a male official (name withheld by us) who is a TETFund staff that the money had been paid to my university account since March 2021. But, when I asked them the payment invoice for the said amount, so that I can use it to claim the payment at my university account office in order to credit my account accordingly.
“It was another rude shock as that he quickly referred me to another staff member, a female, (name withheld by us) who claimed to be in charge of such records. After several conversations without useful result, the lady further referred me to another staff male member, (name withheld by us) , who they claimed, is the Boss in the account unit.
With all these abracadabra and series of altercations between us, that he first staff member finally opened up in a very ridiculous way (because they could not provide the payment invoice for their fake claim) that they just discovered the money they previously claimed to have paid eventually bounce bank from the Central Bank and they will need to reprocess the payment. This ridiculous excuse came up in October, which was after good 6 months of contacting them for the payment.
“To cut the long story short. While all these were going on. My student portal was closed by the university, and two warning letters were sent to me by my university in Cyprus for possible deportation due to the continued accumulation of outstanding.
I was compelled to borrow money to save my studentship after two semesters of zero academic records due to TETFund’s failure to offset the outstanding tuition.
“In December 2022, I went back to Nigeria to formally inform my university back home of my ugly experience with TETFund. On hearing my story, the university management wrote two different letters on my case. One to my university in Cyprus not to terminate my studentship, stating that the process for offsetting the outstanding tuition was ongoing. The second letter was sent to TETFund to fast-track the payment procedure as further delay may hinder my study. Sadly. I am going into the 7th semester of the PhD programme, but as I speak. just a single kobo has not been paid out of the remaining outstanding tuition of the total sum of Euro 5,250 which is an equivalent of over 10 million naira at the current exchange rate.
“More painful is the fact that I had quietly stated my self-sponsored and successfully completed the course work part of a PhD programme which I started in the year 2019 at my Alma Mater (Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife) with excellent performance in the final results of my course work, before I was granted the TETFund sponsorship on merit. Since last year, most of my colleagues have started having their PhD convocation ceremonies. But here I am with TETFund financial frustration.as a Lecturer II staff in a Federal University with #132,000 as a total monthly salary, please for how many years do I need to starve myself and my innocent family members to personally save enough money that can pay this type of amount from my meager salary, so that both my career and future aspirations can be sustained?
*This is how the combined TETFund trio teamed up to jointly loot over #10 million Naira approved for my PhD study..
After protracted indecent but deliberate delay in the process of that outstanding tuition, which is about 10 million naira now.
In December 2022, I travelled down to Nigeria after receiving two separate warning letters for possible deportation due to continued accumulation of outstanding tuition. On getting to Nigeria, I formally wrote my university, stating that *TETEFund has decided to abruptly stop my programme due to failure to offset my tuition balance.*
On receiving my letter, the university management invited me to the management meeting to come and defend my complaint.
At the university management meeting, with the VC, DVC Admin, DVC Academics, Registrar, Bursar, Librarian and Director of Physical planning in attendance, I presented my case with convincing evidences and the management unanimously agreed that such delay in tuition payment is injurious to my study.
Despite the fact that those TETFund guys had lied to the management with fake document claiming that the payment had been effected and my complaint is not reliable. The management saw truth in my own explanation and directed that two separate letters be written on the matter. One to TETFund to fast-track the said payment and the second one was directed to my university in Cyprus not to terminate my studentship, stating that the delay in the outstanding tuition payment was largely due to the CBN policy of naira redesigning which indirectly affected international transactions.
Sir, as I speak, with that level of involvement, since that December of year 2022, nothing, I mean nothing has been done, as they boldly believed that they are untouchable about treasury looting. Their illogical condition is our programme status, claiming that those who have completed their programme are not eligible.
But, contrary to this their indecent excuse, I have it on a good authority that even in my own university in Nigeria, out of the two scholars who benefited from the controversial bailout payment, one has completed his study while the other one is still on his programme. In fact, we both got our award letters same year, started the programme the same year and both of us are still on the programme as I speak. My question now is that was is the criterion that made him eligible for the payment but made me ineligible?This is why all the omitted scholars unanimously believe that TETFund’s deliberate decision to exclude us from the payment list is parochial and possibly aimed at looting the money meant for our bailout payment, “ Sala-Odunjo said.
When contacted to react to the allegations against them, one of the three officials of TETfund, replied : “ you come to our office and clarify all those things he said is a lie we don’t even have access to his money talk less of siphoning it,our work is to disburse funds by taking instructions to central bank who are the custodian of the fund the scholarship money ,the scholars are expected to submit a valid invoice that is within there approved scholarships.”
Our Correspondent also contacted the national President of Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke who first requested to be properly briefed on the matter, the scholars added him to the WhatsApp platform where he interacted with the aggrieved scholars for days and requested that they make available their list and evidence of their claims to him. He however declined to speak with the Reporters despite several calls made and messages sent to him till the time of filing this report.
While the stranded scholars have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to urgently wade in into the matter, Presidential aide on Media, Bayo Onanuga has not yet responded nor reply messages sent to his phone number several days ago .
