PROBE INSIDE OYO POLY TETFund SCANDAL

​OGBOMOSO — A massive financial scandal has hit the Federal Polytechnic, Ayede, in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. Leaked financial logs and a joint union investigation reveal that former principal officers allegedly maintained illegal control of the institution’s bank accounts to siphon millions of naira in Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention grants.

​The funds, which were strictly earmarked for scientific fabrication, Institutional Based Research (IBR), and academic conferences, were reportedly disbursed weeks after the officials’ tenures had officially ended.

​Midnight Payouts and Broken Protocols

​According to standard operating procedures, TETFund academic grants require strict institutional vetting. Prospective beneficiaries must go through a formal application process evaluated by departmental, school, and institutional committees.

​However, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) confirmed that no calls for applications were ever advertised for the 2026 cycle.

​”We are hearing that the money for publication, conferences, and fabrication has already been exhausted,” said Comrade Taiwo Richard, the institution’s ASUP Chairman. “But there was no notice to academic staff, no application process, and no committee sitting to select beneficiaries. Nothing of such happened.”

​The pioneering principal officers—including the former Rector and former Bursar—officially completed their five-year tenures on March 15, 2026, having been appointed on March 16, 2021. Legally, their financial authorization expired at midnight on March 15. Yet, internal bank logs reveal a flurry of highly irregular, multi-million-naira transactions executed throughout late March and April.

​Diverted Millions and Non-Teaching Beneficiaries

​The leaked transaction vouchers expose deep irregularities in how the development funds were distributed:

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• ​Conference Attendance Allocations: Between April 8 and April 9, 2026—weeks after the officials’ exit—lump sums of exactly ₦5,077,693.75 and ₦5,047,693.75 each were paid out to a select group of individuals.
• ​Fabrication and Research Inflows: On March 10, just days before stepping down, a massive ₦26,479,183.11 was moved under the tag “First Tranche of TETFund Approved Fabrication Beneficiaries.” Parallel payouts of ₦26,348,283.11 and ₦27,620,733.12 were also greenlit.
• ​Batch 6 Research Projects: On April 13, nearly a month out of office, dozens of separate payments ranging between ₦600,000 and ₦2.8 million were swept from the school’s accounts to a handpicked list.

​Compounding the outrage, staff members point out that the vast majority of the 16 chosen beneficiaries were non-teaching administrative staff who have no involvement in academic research or manufacturing.

​Current Management Disowns Transactions

​In a bid to uncover how the funds vanished, the Joint Action Committee of campus unions held an emergency meeting with the newly appointed Acting Rector and the current Bursar. Both leaders completely disowned the transactions, stating they never reviewed the applications nor authorized any payments in April.

​Union leadership believes the former Bursar utilized lingering digital banking access, having allegedly failed to properly hand over the financial keys to his successor. The former Bursar has since gone off the radar and remains unreachable for comment.

​Backlash and EFCC Escalation

​The administrative and financial breakdown has triggered immediate real-world consequences for the institution’s workforce. Federal Polytechnic Ayede is currently the only sister institution in the zone blocked from receiving its May salaries due to the flagged financial anomalies.

​Vowing to ensure accountability, the joint unions are preparing a formal petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the TETFund national headquarters to recover the looted development funds and prosecute those involved.