*Compu-Link alleges gratification's request, threat

*Petition, diversionary--- College Provost

The Kwara State College of Education (COED), Oro, and its consulting firm, Compu-Link Infotech Consultancy, are engulfed in a crisis over ICT contract awarded the firm by the college.

The school management is accusing Compu-Link of failing in the terms of agreement reached in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two parties to declare remittance collected from the students amounting to millions of naira.

COED, among others, also accused the firm of engaging in "diversionary tactics" to frustrate the request of accounting for the funds generated from the students' payment.

However, Compu-Link, through his Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Olagunju Omotayo, denied employing diversionary tactics to frustrate the process calling "it a political statement."

Compu-Link had petitioned the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Technology over the matter which led to the setting up of a reconciliatory committee headed by one of the directors in the ministry to look into the matter.

The reconciliatory committee is expected to submit its report in few days, National Pilot has reliably gathered.

In the 8-page petition, which was signed by Taiye Oniyide on behalf of Bayo Ojo and Co and dated June 26, 2015, a copy of which was exclusively obtained by the our reporters, Compu-Link accused the management of COED of criminal Conspiracy, attempt to defraud, criminal force, criminal intimidation, mischief, blackmail, criminal defamation of character, acts done in furtherance of common intention, demand for gratification, fabrication of false evidence, false charge and criminal breach of trust.

It listed the Provost of the college, Dr Olayinka Olowonirejuaro; its Bursar, Mallam Shehu Salisu; the Registrar, Alhaji AbdulGaniy Hanafi, among other principal officers of the college as first line actors in the petition.

According to the firm, the listed officers secretly approached its firm demanding for "gratification" as done by previous consulting firms and failure upon which he will be frustrated out of the project.

It alleged that as at 26-5-2015, the college is indebted to Compu-Link as agreed through the MoU to the tune of over N17m.

But the Provost of the college, Olowonirejuaro, who spoke with this medium on Thursday, differed on the amount and called on the firm's CEO to render the account to the school based on the list of admission students he printed.

"Compu-Link has been called upon right from the time of the former provost of the college to give account of collections but he has not been able to do that.

"We sat him in down in February to ask why he was not giving us the account of the collection, that we wanted to be sure that it is only those who paid school fees will write the exam.

"He assured us that we should allow them (students) write exams and whenever the exam is over he will determine a date to print out list of those that paid and we will use that to release result and we stood on that.

"Our first semester ended in March and we reminded him to which he printed a list for us as part of our agreement.

"After that, he travelled for about three weeks and we decided to give the list to our bursar to do his own calculation so that we will hand over it to him to cross check based on the list he printed out for us.

"It was when he saw the bursar's calculation and its financial implications amounting to about N22m leftover to be collected that he said the list he printed was no longer valid that he just printed list of projected students and not that of actual students that have paid. We said this is not our agreement.

"It was in the midst of that problem that he decided to write the petition to the permanent secretary of the ministry alleging that we are threatening him and we are planning to terminate his contract.

"But how can we do that when we know the legal implication of the MOU we signed. We simply told him to use his calculation to give account", he added.

Reacting to the issue, the firm's CEO, Tayo Olagunju, described the allegation of "diversionary statement" as political.

"What is diversionary? When you are doing investigation, you can go to any length to get what you what.

"We have challenged them to come up with the correct data for us to arrive at a conclusion. I am coming from a meeting now regarding the issue and the report will be out soon.

"The document that says we owe them over N22m should read around March or there about. Aside the political statements, we have to go down to a manual level before we arrived at the N17m plus.

"Any transaction that happens between two people, there must be a receipt for it. We generated this money from the students. Are receipts being issued for the students as they claimed that made them say they have been short paid? The answer was that all the receipts they have written have not been collected by the students.

"We also told them to do the collation on those they have issued receipts and by the time that was concluded and for what we have remitted, it was discovered that we have over paid them to the tune of N17m.

"My company has singlehandedly spent over N27m on the project through the provision of over 100 computers and have been paying a sum of N750, 000 m-minimally for internet subscription every month till date".

"The contract was awarded to us without mobilisation or fee but on partnership agreement", he added.

He also cited lack of database in the institution as reason that has led to the conflicting figures occasioned by the payment list he gave to the college management.