AFAS Welfare and Social Services Ex-Director, Richard Elijah, Debunks FLC’s Accusation of Financial Mismanagement

Lawal Maruf & Opemipo Olukoga

The former Director of Social and Welfare Services of the Association of Faculty of Arts Students, Richard Elijah, has debunked the allegations of financial mismanagement and misappropriation levelled against him by the Faculty Legislative Council (FLC).

In the public statement released and signed by the Ex-director, he extensively addressed the allegations of impropriety made against him by the Audit and Finance committee of AFAS FLC.

In his response to these allegations, Richard explained that “only 900 students had paid their dues at the time the AFAS week budget was presented on the floor of the FLC” which resulted in ₦450,00 which was the actual payment received and was intended for AFAS week.

“Regrettably, an unconstitutional allocation of ₦54,550 for the Legislative Summit, an event not originally planned for in AFAS Week ’23, was made by the FLC. Consequently, the funds available for AFAS Week were reduced to ₦395,450 instead of the initial ₦450,000.” the statement read.

He clarified that he did not plan, organise, or support this legislative summit during his tenure as the Director of Social and Welfare Services “because it is not for the generality of Afasites”.

Richard emphasised that the imposition of the Legislative Summit had led to the scrapping of two planned events for the AFAS week. Also, the decision to use the funds from ticket sales of variety night to finance Cultural Night was imposed by the FLC as he was given a limited chance to speak during the plenary session.


He further explained that he received the approved funds with which he covered various expenses for the week’s success with the hope that tickets will be sold but it led to the association incurring debts totaling ₦100,000 with the approved sum of ₦54,550 for the Legislative Summit and ₦26,600 for the Personality Lecture, Oratory, and Departmental Debate having been expended.


“Consequently, an emergency meeting was held, and a sum of ₦154,550 was approved instead of the total ₦181,600 which was the amount of deficit explained to the Speaker of the FLC and they decided not to approve the total sum of ₦181,600 rather they approved ₦154,550 which had the money of the Legislative Summit in it because they had done the event and they needed the money back and ignored the ₦26,600 for the Personality Lecture, Oratory and Departmental debate. This sum included ₦100,000 to settle debts and ₦54,550 to account for the expensed funds intended for the Legislative Summit.” the statement further read.


Richard also stated that the House had refused to acknowledge the reimbursement of the ₦54,550 in the statement released by them but had rather chosen to allege him falsely in a bid to defame his reputation.


He expatiated that despite the incurred debt of ₦100,000 and ₦54,550 being approved in the supplementary budget, the amount of ₦26,600 dedicated to the Personality Lecture, Oratory, and Departmental debate, which was included in the supplementary budget, was ignored intentionally, indicating an underlying agenda.


Denying all allegations of financial misconduct, he stressed that “every expenditure was solely dedicated to the events, and there would have been sufficient funds to settle the alleged ₦26,600 and ₦20,000 from the personality lecture event if the tickets had been sold as anticipated”.

He added that a total amount of 195 tickets were sold from the anticipated 250 tickets amounting to ₦97,500, which was used for the events as approved by the house. 17 tickets were given to the stakeholders, including members of the house, CPS, and others. A total of 288 unsold tickets are accounted for and physically accessible.

He concluded by pleading that all offices make a thorough investigation of this case to resolve a fair solution.