N300 million fraud: Nasarawa Agric College Provost denies allegation

By Abubakar Lawal Lafia

The Provost College of Agriculture, Science and Technology Lafia, Dr. Yahaya Maikafi has denied fraud allegations of over N300 million.

Dr. Maikafi and Chairman of the Governing Council, Dr. Dominic Bako alledgedly embezzled over N300 million belonging to the College, an allegation believed to have been instigated by suspected members of Staff of the college.

He made his position on the matter in an interview in his office, saying:

“As we all know drawing money from government account is not possible. There is a procedure in removing kobo from government coffers.

“Let me also make it clear that you can remove money only if there is a request of any nature which has to be forwarded to the chief executive for his approval.

Dr. Maikafi further explained that after followed all the necessary channels, it is only the Provost and the Busar that have the mandate to sign cheque for the withdrawal and even at that voucher has to be raised for record purposes.

“You as journalists you can ask whoever is the author of the write-up to provide you with useful evidence to authenticate the allegations that myself and chairman governing council are milking the college resources.

On the allegation that he doled out N300 million from the college purse and gave to Council Chairman to support or workout ways for his substantial Provost, Dr. Maikafi maintained that he has never seen that kind of money.

“Let’s look at the College purse. Do they have this huge amount of money that someone will just wake up and give it to Council chairman just to cover me for my appointment.

“We all know who is Dr. Dominic Bako throughout his service carrier, he worked at ministry of finance as commissioner and became the head of civil service where he came out with a clean bill of health. If that man want to make money he would have done that.

He insisted that the allegation lacks substance, just as he pointed out that it is a mere handwork of some enemies of the current development going on in the institution.

He emphasisef that if Dr. Dominic want to make money from government coffers he would have mafe it while serving as the State Commissioner of Finance, but he didn’t steal money there.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the college generates between seventy to seventy five million annually, which is a far cry from N300 million.

It would be recalled that there was a write-up flying on social media without identity of the author accusing the Provost and chairman of governing council for turning the institution into ATM machine.