The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, has disowned Charles Jide-Oni, the fraud suspect who claims to be a ‘professor’ at the institution.
The 60-year old Jide-Oni was arraigned by the EFCC on Wednesday alongside 12 internet fraud suspects before a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly swindling his victims of several millions of naira through false pretence.
OAU Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olanrewaju, on Friday, told PREMIUM TIMES that there is no lecturer with such name whether in the past or now in the institution.
Mr Olanrewaju, who was responding to questions asked him earlier on Thursday, said going by the records available to the institution online and offline, Mr Jide-Oni was never a lecturer or non-teaching staff of OAU.
“From our records here, past or present, we do not have anybody that is a professor that bears that name. We have also checked through our data, nobody bears that name,” he said.
“The fact that the person calls himself a professor, we need to address the title of a professor because we have Senate data. All professors, retired or working, are part and parcel of the university. So, if anybody now claims to be a professor in OAU, whether a lecturer or not, it is fraudulent in the first instance.
“Having gone through our records, nobody bears that name, whether a male or a female. We do not have a record of anybody with that name who is teaching or has taught in this institution,” Mr Olanrewaju said.
The accused Mr Jide-Oni was granted bail to the tune of N10 million with two sureties in like sum who must be of Grade Level 10 in the civil service and must be resident in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
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