REPS THREATEN ARREST WARRANT AGAINST FED. POLYTECHNIC EDE, RECTOR, BURSAR OVER AUDIT QUERIES, CONTRACT IRREGULARITIES
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has threatened to issue arrest warrants against the Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Sani Yahaya, and the institution’s Bursar, Aishat Adebayo, if they fail to appear before it on Monday, October 19, 2026 over unresolved audit queries, alleged procurement irregularities and other financial management concerns.
The Chairman of the Committee, Bamidele Salam, disclosed, as the Committee adopted the report of a technical committee that reviewed submissions made by six tertiary institutions in response to audit queries issued by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
The decision followed the examination of unresolved issues arising from the Federal Polytechnic, Ede’s 2021 Audit Report, findings recorded during the Committee’s South-West oversight exercise and a Petition received by the Committee.
The Committee expressed displeasure over the repeated failure of the Rector and Bursar to appear before it despite several invitations, describing their non-appearance as a matter of concern in view of the outstanding audit queries and other issues requiring their explanations.
PAC warned that unless the Rector, Bursar and other concerned officials appear before it on Monday, October 19, 2026, it will invoke the relevant powers of the House of Representatives to arrest them and compel their attendance.
The Committee stressed that the officials must appear to respond to the outstanding audit queries, explain the alleged financial irregularities and provide the documents required for its ongoing investigations.
The Committee also disclosed that a visit by its inspection team to the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, revealed very poor project execution, with work done on some projects allegedly not commensurate with the amounts already paid to contractors.
Public Accounts Committee further disclosed that it had received petitions against the management of the institution, alleging various forms of financial irregularities.
The Committee noted that the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, had three outstanding queries in the 2021 Audit Report involving an unretired cash advance , engagement of an external solicitor without the approval of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and foreign trips undertaken without evidence of approval from the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
The Committee also expressed concern over the late submission of the institution’s audited accounts for the 2022, 2023 and 2024 financial years, contrary to extant regulations and statutory requirements.
On the institution’s financial management, during the Committee’s oversight visit to the South-Wes, it observed a significant variance between the approved budget and actual overhead expenditure for 2023. While ₦110.2 million was appropriated for overhead costs, the institution’s audited accounts reflected actual expenditure of ₦882.5 million, representing excess expenditure of approximately ₦772 million.
The Committee further queried a budgetary slack of approximately ₦268.5 million in personnel expenditure for the same year.
According to the records examined, the approved personnel budget stood at ₦2.862 billion, while actual expenditure was ₦2.593 billion, raising concerns about the adequacy of due diligence in the preparation of the institution’s budget estimates.
The Committee warned that the repeated failure of public officials to honour its invitations, provide relevant documents or satisfactorily respond to issues raised during legislative investigations would not be treated lightly.
PAC therefore maintained that the relevant powers of the House of Representatives would be invoked, including measures to compel the attendance of the Rector, Bursar and other concerned officials, should they fail to appear on Monday as directed.
