EXCLUSIVE: FUOYE VC Abayomi Fasina Confesses: How He Paid N20m for the Appointments of Registrar, Bursar
Aside from making itself a centre of attraction in terms of sexual harassment reports in recent times, the leadership of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) Vice Chancellor Abayomi Sunday Fasina has been hit by accusations of financial mismanagement.
In an audio clip exclusively obtained by FIJ, Fasina can be heard admitting to bribing two individuals he referred to as ‘Kolo’ and ‘Jubril’ while appointing the registrar and the bursar of the institution.
While Fasina mentioned the registrar’s name as Ibrahim [Mufutau Adesina Ibrahim], he did not name the bursar. It is however believed that Fasina was referring to Adekemisola Adebolanle Debo-Ajagunna, a chartered accountant, because she is the only bursar appointed under Fasina’s leadership. She joined the service of the school in 2021 after former bursar Bolatito Roseline Akande was sacked.
FIJ understands that Kolo’s full name is Alhaji Alkali Aji Kolo (popularly called Aji Kolo). Jubril is Abdullahi Jubril. Both individuals were external members of the university’s governing council when the registrar and the bursar were appointed. Their tenure ended in June 2023 when President Bola Tinubu dissolved all governing councils across the country.
Members of a governing council are appointed by the president of the country or a state governor and they form the highest decision-making organ in a university. They oversee the academic, administrative and financial activities of the university. The council also oversees recruitment of the university’s principal officers, including vice and deputy vice-chancellors in compliance with regulatory rules.
During a phone interview on January 2, FIJ asked Benjamin Faleye, the chairman of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) whom the university authorities suspended alongside Ayomikun Oluwaseun Aluko, the union secretary, in December over his involvement in the sexual harassment investigation, on whether he knew Kolo and Jubril.
“The names were popular on campus and cannot be denied,” Faleye said, adding that, “We know them. He [Fasina] mentioned Aji Kolo and another name I cannot recall now.”
FASINA: I PAID KOLO AND JUBRIL N10M EACH
In the clip, Fasina revealed his desire for a sexual relationship with Folasade Adebayo, a deputy director at the Directorate of Works and Services, in the school. While doing this, Fasina claimed he paid a bribe of N10 million each to Kolo and Jubril to confirm Ibrahim as registrar ahead of others he said were more qualified for the position.
Mufutau Adesina Ibrahim was previously a deputy director at the National Universities Commission (NUC). He was appointed FUOYE acting registrar on November 1, 2019 until March 2022 when he was confirmed as substantive registrar.
“Even when Ibrahim [Mufutau Ibrahim, registrar] was fighting on your [Folasade Adebayo] case, I told him to shut up at some stage. And I know that he would be thinking at the time that there was something between you and I [sic],” Fasina told Adebayo.
Fasina wanted to transfer Adebayo from the Ikole campus of the school to the main campus to be part of the management team, but Ibrahim, as the school’s administrative officer, was negatively disposed to the idea. Ibrahim then visited Fasina at his residence. There, Fasina expressed his displeasure at the registrar’s unwillingness to approved the transfer, insisting it be approved.
In the clip, Fasina narrated his conversation with Ibrahim to Adebayo.
“I told him [Ibrahim] to shut up, that that is where I stand and I want it. Do you [Adebayo] know that when you told me that he did not give you that letter, I called him and warned him not to trigger my anger?” Fasina said.
“I said I know what I did before you [registrar] got an appointment as registrar. I told him that I am not bragging. That if I want to help someone, I will do it without looking back.
Fasina: I paid N20 million for registrar and bursar’s appointments.
“I paid N10 million each to those people; N10 million each for Kolo and Jubril. I also did other things for them.”
Aside from the financial gratification, Fasina said he dispensed employment favours to Kolo and Jubril’s associates and their recommended admission applicants, among other undue favours, just to ensure Ibrahim was made registrar even though he did not “merit” the appointment.
“Apart from admissions, I employed their people. A lot of things. If I can do that for you [registrar], you did not merit it now,” Fasina said.
“Many people who wanted to become a registrar came for that interview with years of working experience. I am not bragging, but don’t do that. He then reasoned with me and returned to Akinkunmi [Ayodele Akinkunmi, deputy registrar].
“What I was after was the number of years. I knew where I was going. He can go anywhere with it. He has earned his seniority.”
The suspended SSANU chairman commented further on the clip when FIJ interviewed him. “The VC clearly said that he bribed for the registrar’s position by the previous governing council. He mentioned their names, that he gave them N10 million each,” he said.
This confession raises question as to the source of the money. Section 9 (b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2020 sees givers and takers of bribes in this instance as perpetrating “official corruption and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for seven (7) years”.
Similarly, bribery amounts to gross misconduct and an offender could be fired if the offence is established, according to Section 8.3 of FUOYE’s Revised Regulations Governing the Conduct of Service of Senior Staff.
The document defines gross misconduct as “a specific act of very serious wrongdoing and improper behaviour which is inimical to the image of the service and which can be investigated and if proven, may lead to dismissal”.
In a separate audio, Fasina said that he regretted making advances to Adebayo. He also said that university officers had warned him that some Department of State Services (DSS) officers were already aware of the bribery confession.
“Inuwa [Sabo] told me that even people in DSS Abuja told him. He said I am harassing, making advances to you and warned me to stop it if I had ever tried to do that. He said ‘I know you are a making of good standing as a Christian’. How will somebody know what is happening here?” Fasina said in a separate audio clip.
“The only mistake I have ever made in my life was to ask you out. He also said we paid money for the appointments of the registrar and the bursar and they probably did not give him out of the money”.
Inuwa, an engineer, served on the governing council alongside Kolo and Jubril as an external member.
Fasina talks about how Inuwa called him. He also says he regrets making advances to Adebayo. Adebayo tells him not to blackmail her. Fasina also says Adebayo is not mature and people will know that “she is the architect of her own problem” because she is endangering her life.
When contacted for comments on January 2, Ibrahim denied ever being told by the VC that any money was paid to influence his appointment as registrar.
“There was no time I was told money was paid on my behalf for my appointment. Professor Abayomi Fasina has never told me anything like that. It was just recently I started hearing the rumour,” Ibrahim told FIJ on the phone.
“I was not aware of such because I was eminently qualified. I worked at the National Universities Commission (NUC) for 30 years before joining the FUOYE. I don’t see any reason why somebody would want to blackmail me but I am ready for them. I don’t know if what they are saying is true, but Professor Fasina has never told me that he paid N20 million to secure my appointment. If I was told, I could have asked him to give me the money and leave the appointment. To me, it is a blatant lie. It is a story to blackmail me and the professor.”
DEBO-AJAGUNNA: ‘I AM NOT AWARE’
Similarly, the bursar said that she was unaware of any bribe payment for her appointment and had not become aware of the audio clip.
“I am not aware. What I know is that the university advertised [a vacancy] and I applied for it. I did an interview and I was given the appointment. I joined in 2021. I was acting bursar before becoming substantive bursar,” Debo-Ajagunna said on January 17.
After the call, FIJ made the clip available to her via WhatsApp to comment further, but she had yet to do so at publication time.
FASINA’S SPECIAL ADVISER, LAWYER SPEAK
When Fasina did not initially respond to request for comment, FIJ phoned Dayo Sobowale, his special adviser.
While questioning if FIJ wanted to reinvestigate the matter after the Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU) at Ikoyi in Lagos State reportedly absolved Fasina of any misconduct, Sobowale said the registrar and the bursar were appointed by the governing council after writing the necessary exams. He further claimed that the audio recording had been “adulterated”.
“Did the registrar and the bursar not write an exam? How do you establish bribery? Are there no results of the examination? If I say that I bribed someone to give a job as an investigative journalist, that constitutes a bribe?” Sobowale queried.
“And because you have something on tape, which is not verified and already adulterated in this AI age. If you have ulterior motive for blackmail, no problem.”
Oluwatosin Adesioye, a lawyer at the chambers of Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, wrote to FIJ on behalf Fasina on January 2, stating that the police had, through an investigative report, absolved the VC of any wrongdoing.
Adesioye further stated that the accusations were “completely false, baseless and manufactured in a deliberate attempt to damage the standing”.
WHAT DID KOLO AND JUBRIL SAY?
FIJ briefed Kolo on Fasina’s confession and he requested to have the audio clip before responding. On January 16, he responded via WhatsApp.
He confirmed hearing Fasina make the statement, but denied collecting any bribe from him.
“Although the allegation portion can be heard but the voices are not very clear as to ascertain the male and female speakers. But I wish to state that the allegation that he gave me N10 million for the appointment of the registrar and the bursar is not true,” Kolo stated.
Fasina’s lawyer at Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN & Co laid heavy emphasis on the police investigation into this self-confessed bribery, sexual harassment against Adebayo, among other issues. In their January 2 letter referenced A&C/RC/L-04/01/2025, the law firm said it noted “for the record that the police did not leave any stone unturned” in its investigation into the accusations.
Both Kolo and Jubril told FIJ that at no point did the police invite or interview them while investigating the case.
Like Kolo, Jubril also said it was not true that Fasina gave him such an amount. “The allegation that Professor Fasina N10 million for the appointments of the registrar and the bursar is not true,” he said on January 17.
FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT ANTECEDENT
In June 2021, a committee empaneled by the Federal Ministry of Education to to review FUOYE’s books and performance from 2016 to 2020 published its report six months after Fasina became vice chancellor.
The panel found that “there was a lot of opacity in the manner in which the finances of the University were managed” and the school registry was regularly headed between 2016 and 2020 by grossly incompetent individuals. It urged the president to “urgently set up a committee of experts to carry out a forensic audit of the accounts” of the school.
Olatunbosun Sunday Emmanuel Odusanya was appointed as FUOYE registrar in October 2020 but was suspended in April 2021 over alleged “administrative recklessness and a mindless illegal staff recruitment exercise exhibited/carried out between 2020 and 2021”.
Similarly, Bolatito Roseline Akande, a former bursar, was suspended over financial malfeasance less than two weeks after Odusanya was suspended.
The panel wrote in its report that the allegation against Akande was a “serious financial malfeasance involving hundreds of millions of naira and the operation of (a) bank account(s) in commercial banks instead of the TSA (committed between 2017 and 2021)”.
“Given that the registrar and bursar are responsible to the vice chancellor (administratively and financially, respectively), it is difficult not to see the vice chancellor as complicit (in the actions of the registrar as established by Council or in the actions of the bursar if proven), except if incompetence is established,” the committee wrote.
Minister of Education Tunji Alausa and the Federal Ministry of Education did not respond to an email sent on January 13 to their personal and official email addresses for comments on this story.
This is the third and final part of a series of exclusive reports on Abayomi Sunday Fasina’s sexual harassment against Adebayo and confession to bribery in FUOYE. The first and second parts are available here and here.
FIJ