LASUSU: WHO TOOK IT THIS TIME?
The 34th LASUSU continue to be plagued by cases of dishonesty and financial misappropriation, even after their administration, the drama continues.
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Get comfortable, seat back and relax, this is a long one.
Thursday January 23, 2025, started out as a normal day, but for members of the 34th LASUSU Executives, it was a day of joy. They had finally been paid their disbursement in the sum of ₦2.7 million for the activities and events hosted during the LASUSU Week of their administration.
Although, the payment was long overdue, it was still a thing of joy for them, as the past executives; President, Comr. Haroun Tobun; the Financial Secretary Comr. Olufemi Abayomi (Femsneh); and the Treasurer, Comr. Olalere Yusuf Olatunji (Maverick); went to cash out the money paid.
Upon the cashout, Comr. Femsneh mentioned that the amount was too large to be kept in his personal account. In this light, Comr. Tobun, the past president, told him to remove a certain percentage for himself and Comr. Maverick while the remaining summing up to over two million should be sent to his personal account.
Comr. Tobun had promised to pay the rest of the executive members who held events during the LASUSU week, personally. True to his word, he paid, but only one executive member was paid — Comr. Osagie Faruk (OlaNicholas), the Sports Director who was paid a total of ₦300,000.
'He said he would send it to them'
After cashing out the money and collecting their share, Comr. Femsneh and Comr. Maverick did not bother telling the remaining executive members that the President was with the money and would share with them.
This was out of trust in the President to keep his word and do as promised.
"The money was not available in cash. We had to transfer the money to my own account. After I transferred the money to my own account, we withdrew it from the bank. He then said 'You and the treasurer should take your own portion. Send all that is left to me, and I'll share it to the remaining executives,' Comr. Femsneh told this editor and this was also confirmed by Comr. Maverick.
After a while, the Financial Secretary and Treasurer were not aware that the President was yet to disburse the money until the Vice President, Epe Campus, Comr. Ezekiel Obasanya (Zeek) recently discovered that the money has been paid since January 21st, 2025, and was cashed out days later.
Comr. Zeek then reached out to the Financial Secretary and Treasurer who confirmed that they had received the money but were not aware that the others were yet to.
Give unto Ceaser, what is Ceaser's
"So, I collected what was rightfully mine it was rightfully mine. Maybe because it didn't get to them, so they thought maybe we shared all of that money which is quite impossible," Comr. Maverick told this reporter.
The money disbursed was to be a form of repayment to executive members who spent their money on events during the LASUSU Week.
Comr. Zeek while speaking to this editor mentioned that the Epe campus planned to have six events for LASUSU Week but unfortunately, they could only go ahead with four events and were unable to proceed with the other two events due to lack of funds
According to him, a rough estimate of the total amount budgeted for one of the concluded four events was about four million naira.
"When I made a calculation on funds I borrowed, and everything attached to the one event, it's over ₦600,000 that I am owing persons that assisted me with the funds which has to be refunded, and I have not done a good job on that because I am still struggling to pay that back since last year’s August till date," Comr. Zeek noted to this reporter.
The Epe Vice President further adds that he has been funding LASUSU EPE with his personal money from the beginning of administration till he left Office, and he did not any financial support from LASUSU throughout his tenure save for the starting funds that was sent which was ₦90,000 and was spent on fixing the Union's buses.
For Comr. Funkizzy, the story was almost the same, having spent about ₦4 million on events including the Mr and Miss LASU Pageantry. He has been expecting to get between ₦400,000 - ₦800,000 back from the money but nothing was paid to him.
"Now, imagine me, all the stress and everything I did for that event. I did not even see sponsor, no money from the management or anything. I did everything with my personal money. Now, getting this as payback, is that even reasonable at all?" Comr. Funkizzy laments.
The Blame Game
"The most important person to blame here is not even the president, to me, it's the Financial Secretary. He is the one that should be in charge of the money, so how did the money now get to the hand of the president? He is the one accountable for the money."
These were the words of Comr. Funkizzy as he believes that the Financial Secretary should not have handed over the money to the President in the first place.
"The treasurer too, when the money entered, when he received the alert, he was supposed to inform us. Even if you want to scam us, let us be aware that, 'Oh, this money has already entered' and even if you want to give us penny, let us know 'Oh, this money has already entered”.
He further adds that, "we know, we will fight. But there was no information being passed down to anyone of us, aside from the people that want to eat the money."(sic)
Similarly, Comr. Ibiade was of the opinion that the Financial Secretary should have informed the other executive members that the payment had been made.
The Treasurer, Comr. Maverick noted to this reporter that it was impossible to share that amount of money for themselves and even if it was going to happen he would not have allowed it
"So we entrusted the president to do the needful but which he failed us. So I was expecting them to you know call out to the president not me. They could not even face the president to demand for what is rightfully theirs so instead they are coming for me and the Fin Sec. We don't we don't have any anything to give them. It is with the president. The money is still with the president and even till tomorrow I will still stand on it that Tobun should give it out to them," Comr. Maverick stated.
Not a First
On Monday, June 24, 2024, the LASUSU SPC held an emergency sitting and suspended the union President, Comrade Haroun Tobun from office.
Comr. Tobun was said to have impersonated the Acting TMC Chairperson by assigning the duties of the acting TMC Chairperson to the previously suspend chairperson without proper notification and was suspended on grounds of ‘financial misappropriation, lack of accountability, unconstitutional closure of the TMC office, and flagrant disregard for the provisions of the constitution.'
As at the time, the president was also unable to account for the sum of N120,000 paid by the executive members of LASULAWS for the usage of LASUSU Buses into an account he gave, owned by one Muiz Ogundeji.
Similarly, the President reportedly received the sum of ₦1.8 million for the LASUSU Fresher's week events.
"For the Freshers Week, the funds disbursed was One million, Eight hundred Thousand naira and the President failed to remit about Six Hundred thousand. Additionally, he shared just Six hundred Thousand naira to all the executives that held events during the Freshers Week and held back One million, Two hundred Thousand for himself in total after failing to share the supposed funds equally amongst the entitled persons that held events respectively," Comr. Zeek alleges.
Unavailable
Since the news broke out among the executive members that the President was with the money, all messages calls and texts to the President have remained unattended to.
"I messaged him on Snapchat. He posted where he was eating Pepper Soup. I messaged him, he did not reply," Comr. Ibiade Benjamin, the PRO, noted to this editor.
Similarly, the Social Director, Comr. Ismail Mohammed (Funkizzy) has been trying to reach the President to no avail.
"I've been trying to call him, we've been trying to reach out to him since this week, calling him, texting him. I've been following on snap, everywhere, he's nowhere to be seen," Comr. Funkizzy said.
LASU Life reached out to Comr. Tobun, but as of press time, he is yet to respond.
What the Law Says
While the LASUSU Constitution does not explicitly or directly address such issues, Comr. Tobun and by extension some of the other executive members have allowed a conflict between their personal interests and their duties as the executive members which can be considered as a violation of the Code of Conduct for office holders in the LASUSU Jurisprudence which applies to him by virtue of his office. See Par. 1 of the Third Schedule and Par. 1 of the Fourth Schedule of the Supreme LASUSU Constitution.
A student of the Faculty of Law who agreed to speak to us on the condition of anonymity noted that, "the application of the LASUSU Constitution to them is now a subject of debate as it is currently unclear if they can be referred to as “Graduates”.
"However, for the President, the LASUSU Constitution is made subject to the Laws of Lagos State and the Laws of Nigeria. If these allegations against him are true, he can be charged for stealing as provided in Section 278 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State and if his guilt is established, I’m afraid he will do jail.
"Additionally, if he can still be referred to as a student, he can also be sanctioned by the Students Disciplinary Council, and this might even include an action nullifying his 5years in the department of Fishery".
📝: Ayo Oladiran, Deputy Editor, LASULife.
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