Gabriel Dike
House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement has visited the University of Lagos (UNILAG), on a fact-finding mission over the alleged infraction as well as the crisis that erupted in the institution between the Governing Council chairman and some management staff and former principal officers.
The eight-man committee led by Mr. Oluwale Oke, visited some of the contentious project sites including the TETFUND Library that caved in on the third floor.
Among the completed and ongoing projects visited included the Elkanemi Hall, 500-seater lecture hall at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Olympic Swimming Pool and lecture hall at Distance Learning Institute.
At each of the project sites, some members of the House committee and council members engaged the contractors, and the director of works and physical planning on why the building collapsed. While the House members and council members insisted it was a case of collapsed building, the contractor and consultant said it was a mishap on the third floor.
After the visit to the project sites, the House committee held a meeting in the Senate Building, and while there, they questioned the contractor, consultant, procurement officer, director of works and physical planning and the vice chancellor.
The chairman of the committee, Mr. Oke, asked the university management, procurement officer, director of works and physical planning, contractor, consultant and the structural engineer to submit vital documents to back up their claims.
Oke disclosed that the petition by the chairman, Governing Council of UNILAG, Dr. Wale Babalakin, was against some university management and former principal officers.
He said the petition bordered on financial mismanagement and breach of the Public Procurement Act and demanded an audit report of UNILAG from 2017 to 2018.
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On the crisis over the chairmanship of UNILAG Tender Board, Oke who was emphatic about what the law states, told the VC, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, that he is the chairman of the tender board and warned that nobody should usurp his duties.
Oke also disclosed that the VC is the accounting officer of UNILAG, noting “if anything goes wrong in the university, the Federal government will hold you responsible.
“Nobody should usurp your roles and powers to avoid being tried. Your job is to report to the council. In all the allegations, no council member was mentioned. The public procurement act is a serious law. The committee will not be intimidated or oppressed by anybody,” he stressed.
The eight-man committee is expected to submit its report to the House this week for deliberation.
Dr. Babalakin who wrote the petition against the VC, some management and former principal officers, was absent at the sitting but the council was represented by three members.