Nearly four years since his dismissal less than two weeks to his mandatory retirement from public service, Joseph Akeju, chief lecturer in the department of accountancy at the Yaba College of Technology, has formally retired with effect from March 21, 2018, his statutory date of retirement.
The letter conveying the management’s decision to allow him retire peacefully was dated December 21, 2021, and addressed to Akeju. It was signed on behalf of the registrar by G. A. Ogunsanwo, deputy registrar. It said, “The management is appreciative of your meritorious service and immense contributions during the period of your service in the College.” It is learnt that all his entitlements are being processed.
Efforts to get the college governing council to reverse the dismissal and allow Akeju to enjoy his retirement without hinderance was championed by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) and backed by the senate committee on public petition.
Just days to his formal retirement, Akeju was suddenly sacked on March 9, 2018, by the governing council of the institution headed by Lateef Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, for his consistent whistleblowing on corrupt practices in the college that prides itself on being the cradle of higher learning in Nigeria.
That letter of dismissal was handed to him on his sickbed in the hospital. According to reliable sources, Akeju’s sacking was the fallout of his expose on the persistent sale of college certificates by a cartel in the college registry.
It was the second time the whistleblower, who had become a thorn in the flesh of the management and the council, would be sacked for exposing sundry fraud and insisting on due process in the college whose notoriety for all kinds of sharp practices perpetrated by a well-protected syndicate was fast spreading.
Earlier in 2009 when the whistleblower was the college bursar, he was fired as punishment for exercising his right to refuse to participate in the systematic looting of the college treasury, and for making the theft known to the public. He was reinstated in 2016 by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, when it became clear that he had committed no offence.
Akeju is the fourth in the line of whistleblowers whose cases AFRICMIL had intervened and helped to get justice. Others include Aaron Kaase of Police Service Commission, Ntia Thompson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Sambo Abdullahi of Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc. Two other victimized whistleblowers – Murtala Ibrahim of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and Joseph Ameh of Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba – are still fighting for justice at the National Industrial Court.
