By Abdullah Tijani
The Students’ Representative Assembly (SRA) of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto has suspended three executives of the Students’ Union for mismanagement of the union’s funds.
The President, Ibrahim Sheu has been suspended for four weeks, while the Financial Secretary, Mu’azu Bello and the Welfare Director, Abdulrahman Abubakar have bagged three weeks suspension respectively.
The resolution for the suspension was made at the public legislative sitting held by the SRA members which had the presence of the Dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof Aminu Mode.
Mu’azu, the Financial Secretary of the Union was suspended for not being able to explain to the house committee on finance how the sum of 400,000 Naira disappeared in the Union’s account.
In a press release by the House Committee on Media and Publicity, the reason for the suspension reads thus: ” The Financial Secretary is suspended for three weeks, as the house committee on finance could not find it clear on how 400,000, was spent.”
It was gathered that, the Welfare Director, Abdulrahman was alleged of spending beyond the amount of money approved by the Legislative Council for reconstruction of ‘Kwankwasiya’ hostel water system.
“The Welfare Director is suspended for a period of three weeks for spending an amount of money beyond what was approved by the legislative arm despite the fact that, he has been given chance to approach the house for additional funds, if the need arises,” the press release explained.
President of the Students’ Union, Ibrahim Sheu also bagged four weeks suspension for embarking on a million project of elongating and interlocking of a walkway known as “Jatau” without getting the approval of the Students’ Representative Assembly. The S R A based the suspension of the president on his contradictory action of the students handbook.
Constitutionally, any project above 50,000 naira must be approved by the S R A and any project which is not included in the budget shall not be implemented without the approval from the Assembly.
“All expenditure shall be incurred according to the budgetary provisions by the S R A. No off-campus extra-budgetary expenditure of more than fifty thousand Naira (#50,000) shall be incurred without prior approval of the S R A,” our correspondent gathered from the authoritative wording of Article XIII of the Students’ Union constitution.
In an interview with our correspondent, the president admitted the fact that the project was not approved though, he thought it was an issue to be solved internally without external intervention.
When called upon to defend himself at the sitting, he said the project was involved in the budget of the past administration but was unable to be executed.
“We learnt that the project was in the budget of the previous administration. For continuity and progress, we found it necessary to execute the project. This made us to send a letter to the S R A which was denied. We saw the need of extending the walkway and we tend to seize the opportunity of the break, so we went ahead to execute the project,” he explained.
“I know this project has started benefiting the students. I accept my mistakes and on behalf of the executive council members we tender our apologies,” he added apologetically.
Apart from breaching the constitution, the president was also acused of: boycotting the Dean of Students’ Affairs in securing funds; failure to account for the actual amount spent over the extension and interlocking the walkway and lack of transparency.
Immediately after the suspension, the legislative Council appointed the Vice President 1, Khadijah Sulaiman as the Acting President.
STOLEN MACE
However, another show of shame began immediately after the suspension of the president. While the president and his entourage waked out of the house, some unrecognized students who had been shouting in the house made a way with the mace, during the proceeding.
Funny enough, the stolen mace was immediately replaced with a spare and the the legislative proceeding continued.