Abayomi Fasina, the vice chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), illegally dipped his hands into the university’s treasury to engage Tiamiyu Adegboyega, a legal practitioner at T. S. Adegboyega & Co. based in Osun State, to prosecute personal litigation, FIJ can report.

On November 3, 2023, Fasina filed a defamation suit against Akinyemi Omonijo, a former chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in FUOYE, on the basis that the academic staff published a letter claiming that he was receiving multiple salaries.

Fasina was previously a lecturer at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, before embarking on a sabbatical to FUOYE and subsequently becoming its vice chancellor.

READ ALSO: FUOYE VC Fasina Asks Court to Stop ICPC’s Probe Into His Sexual Misconduct

Omonijo’s publication stated that Fasina was receiving salaries from EKSU and FUOYE simultaneously in contravention of the public service rules.

A compendium of Fasina’s writ of summons.

Fasina then took Omonijo up on the content of the publication and hired Adegboyega’s law firm to file a civil case at the Ado-Ekiti High Court.

In the court filings, Fasina sought five distinct reliefs from the court. Particularly, Fasina asked the court to award N5 million to him as the cost of litigating the case.

Fasina instituted the case in his personal capacity to preserve his integrity and reputation, which he believed the publication had damaged.

“I state that the story contained in the publication by the defendant through the letter written on the 4th January, 2021, amounted to disparagement of my hard-earned reputation generally in the eyes of right thinking members of the public generally,” Fasina stated in his statement filed before the court.

“I state that as a frontline public officer, the publication by the Defendant through the letter written on the 4th January, 2021, has badly impaired and impugned my character and reputation thus exposing me to ridicule and making me a laughing stock generally in the eyes of right thinking members of the public.”

In backing up his prayer for the cost of litigation, Fasina attached a receipt issued to him by Adegboyega’s law firm evidencing the payment of N5 million. The receipt was signed by Olugbenga Fayemiwo, a lawyer at the law office.

Being a personal case, Fasina was expected to have personally borne the cost of prosecuting the case.

However, the receipt, exclusively obtained by FIJ, indicated that FUOYE paid for the professional fees of hiring the lawyer and his chambers to handle the case.

“Five million naira received from the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State being legal fee for institution of civil matter in court,” the receipt, signed by Fayemiwo, read.

“VIOLATORS MAY SPEND AT LEAST 8 YEARS IN JAIL”

The payment amounts to an abuse of office and an infraction of Section 13 of the Conduct of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, 2004, according to Olasupo Owoeye, a visiting professor of law at Lead City University.

READ ALSO: FUOYE VC Fasina Sent on 6-Month Leave Although ‘It Should Have Been a Suspension’

“Essentially, the vice chancellor is a public officer and that means he is under the obligations imposed on public officers. By the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, which you will find in the fifth schedule of the Constitution, a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities,” Owoeye said in a phone interview with FIJ on Satursday.

“If any university staff at all, whether the vice chancellor or a much junior staff, uses the funds of the university for personal purposes, that is actually putting their personal interest in conflict with their duties and responsibilities, and that would run afoul of Paragraph One of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers.

!Beyond Paragraph One, when you look at Paragraph Nine of the same Code of Conduct for Public Officers, it explicitly provides that a public officer shall not do or direct to be done, in abuse of his office, any act prejudicial to the right of others knowing that such act is unlawful or contrary to any government policy. Now by directing the use of the university funds to pursue a personal matter in court, that is a clear case of abuse of office. By using the university funds to do that personal matter, the university and its staff are being denied the right to the use of those funds for their lawful the business.”

Owoeye, who also teaches and practices law in Nigeria and Australia, went further to consider the position of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Act 2000 and the Criminal Law of Ekiti State 2021, saying that both laws prescribes between five and eight years for public officers who directs the use of public funds for personal benefits.

“So, when you look at the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act of 2000, particularly Section 19, you will also see that the law criminalises such an act. That section says that any public officer who uses the office or possession to confer any corrupt or unfair advantage upon himself or any relation or associate shall be guilty of an offense and on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a period of five years without an option of fine. So the element of that offence that a public officer has used his office to gain an unfair advantage is a clear case of corruption, if the allegation is shown to be true,” he said.

“I have cited two federal laws: the constitution and the ICPC Act. But when you go further, even the law of Ekiti State, where the university is located, provides in Section 86 of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State 2021 that such an action is a crime. That law says that any public officer who performs an act in violation of any written law for the purpose of obtaining undue advantage for himself is guilty of a felony and he is liable to imprisonment for five years.

“Basically, if a vice chancellor should do that, what he has done is the conferment of undue advantage on himself by using those funds to pay for a lawsuit that he should have covered from personal funds. That makes it a felony under the laws of Ekiti State and if it is established that he has done so, he may liable to imprisonment for five years.

“That law does not stop there. Section 86 (2) goes further to say that any public officer who does or directs to be done, in abuse of the authority of his office, any arbitrary action prejudicial to the right of another is also guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for three years.”That law does not stop there. Section 86 (2) goes further to say that any public officer who does or directs to be done, in abuse of the authority of his office, any arbitrary action prejudicial to the right of another is also guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for three years.

“So, in addition to the first five years for confirming an undue advantage in a manner prejudicial to the right of others, such an act comes with an additional punishment of 3 years.

“In this case, who will be prejudiced by the decision of a VC to use institutional funds for personal purposes? Definitely, it is the university and its staff. Because they would be deprived of funds that should be used for covering the cost of running the university, including even paying staff. So, essentially, you have two offences on that Section 86; one carries an imprisonment of five years and the other carries an imprisonment of three years. Cumulatively, you are looking at eight years imprisonment.

“It is not just the Nigerian legal system that makes this a crime. As a matter of fact, there is an obligation in international law that makes it obligatory on countries all over the world to ensure that citizens and their agencies are maintained in a manner that has a robust safeguard and system to prevent abuse of office.

“The international law to be considered here is the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which was adopted by the United Nations in October 2003 and it entered into Force in 2005. The convention puts an obligation on members of the United Nations all over the world to ensure that their citizens and the apparatuses of government are maintained and operated in a manner that essentially prevents abuse of office by public officers.”

Fasina had not responded to a list of questions sent as a text and on WhatsApp to him on Friday. He also did not return phone calls placed to his known line at press time.