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| Odubela and Jiboku |
Days after teachers in the Ogun State
public schools called off their strike, private school proprietors in
the state are locked in a war of words over allegations of financial
misappropriation and perpetuation in office.
The fallout of the tussle is the
purported removal of the chapter president of the National Association
of Private Schools Proprietors, Dr. Abayomi Jiboku, who has vowed to
stop at nothing to clear his name and regain his mandate.
For now, the crisis has split members
into two factions struggling for the soul of the association. The
predicament, it was learnt, started when the association, in a state
delegates’ meeting held at the Oja-Omo Town Hall, Ilushin Ogun Water
Side Local Government, last week passed a vote of no confidence in
Jiboku.
According
to the association’s vice-president, who was appointed acting president
at the meeting, Mr. Samuel Oyekunle, Jiboku was present at the meeting,
which had delegates from 13 out of 20 local governments in the state.
Jiboku, whose tenure ends in March, was elected in 2013.
Specifically, Oyekunle said the NAPPS
president was confronted with allegations of misappropriation of funds
realised from the unified examinations. The initiative is a newly
introduced annual mock examination to prepare pupils for external
examination. It involves the sales of forms and the cost differs from
school to school.
“Jiboku was the fifth president of the
association in the state and we have never had it so bad. I am the
vice-president and the first chairman of the unified examinations of
private schools in the state. I was removed as the chairman because of
health challenges as I spent nine months in the hospital. We were
elected in February 2013 and our tenure ought to last for two years. The
amount accruing from the unified examinations from December 2013 till
date is in the neighbourhood of N50m and Jiboku has failed to account
for the funds,’’ he said.
But in another meeting on Tuesday, a
faction of the association cleared Jiboku of the allegations, and called
for a National Panel of Enquiry to resolve the imbroglio. In the
meeting, held at the state secretariat of the association in Abeokuta,
Jiboku was said to have defended all the allegations against him with
verifiable proofs.
However, in a telephone interview with
our correspondent, Jiboku said he already left the meeting at the time a
vote of no confidence was passed on him. The embattled president, who
said he was in Abuja to inform the Inspector-General of Police of the
development on Thursday, expressed readiness to clear his name before
any administrative panel.
He said insinuations that he was
interested in elongating his tenure were laughable, as the national body
of the association had written a letter to all chapters that it is
reviewing the constitution and the timetable for new elections.
Jiboku, who admitted that he attended
the first meeting with operatives of the State Security Officers because
of reports of threats to his life, maintained that the meeting in which
he was purportedly removed did not hold.
“I am still the president of the
association as far as I am concerned and as far as the national
executive is concerned. The Waterside meeting did not hold because at
the point of adopting the agenda, I referred them to the letter from the
national executive, which states that all elections must be put on
hold, that a new timetable is in existence. The constitution is being
reviewed and the state election will now hold in July while all newly
elected officers at all levels will be sworn in November. What this
means is that all of us serving officers will remain in office till
November. At that point, I left and whatever happened thereafter I do
not know. If we did not go with the SSS, only God knows what would have
happened. The allegations against me are untenable and cannot be
defended anywhere,’’ he said.
Reacting to the advertorial signed by
some local chairmen, secretaries and members, Oyekunle said he had
notified the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr.
Segun Odubela, and other stakeholders of the change of baton. He added
that the majority of the members were only interested in electing
credible leaders for the association.
“Dr. Abayomi Jiboku was removed as the
state president of the association through a vote of no confidence which
was passed on him by the majority of the house in a state delegates
meeting held at Oja-Omo Townhall, Ilushin, Ogun Waterside Local
Government, Ogun State on Thursday, January 22, 2015. Subsequently, he
has no legal and constitutional right to convene any meeting as that of
Tuesday, January 27, 2015. This rendered such meeting and decision taken
in the meeting, including his publication of Thursday 29th January
2015, irrelevant, null and void on NAPPS and its members.’’
“I have the exco working with
temporarily. I have written to the commissioner for education,
commissioner of police and the NAPPS south-west president. We are going
to constitute an electoral board for people to purchase forms and
canvass positions. I am going to vacate this office in April for newly
elected people that are credible, acceptable and have listening ears,’’
he said.
However, Odubela expressed surprise at
the development, promising to speak with the protagonists with a view of
resolving the issues.
“Nobody has informed me. I still spoke
with Jiboku recently and he even made some requests which are being
attended to at the moment. But whatever are the issues, we will resolve
it. You know we have had a lot of support from NAPPS. Look at what they
have been able to achieve with the Unified Examinations,’’ he said.
Jiboku has however said he will not
submit to mediation. He vowed to clear his name of the allegations
leveled against him. “My reputation is at stake and I am not ready to
listen to anybody. I have served in government at various capacities and
I am not going to allow anybody to rubbish my name.
That is why I am in Abuja from Abeokuta.
The IG is going to invite them. If I have come all the way from
Abeokuta then all I am interested in is clearing my name. Any newspaper
that wants to write anything had better be careful. I have defended
myself before a meeting I summoned and the meeting was well attended. I
have spent over N6 million of my personal money on NAPPS. Nobody knew
NAPPS before I came into office two years ago. The records are there to
see,’’ he said.
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