Nigerian Newsday

Anthony Adgidzi, Akwanga

The crisis that engulfed the cooperative, credit and thrift society, college of education, Akwanga has been resolved while a former treasurer of the cooperative (name withheld) has been asked to pay about N2.9m interest which was not remitted to the cooperative coffers.

This decision and resolution were reached at the cooperative Annual General Meeting (AGM) which took place at the multi-purpose hall of the college penultimate week.

The present treasurer of the cooperative, Mr. kayanu N. Adamu said that the over N25m that was alleged to have been embezzled by the former treasurer, has been recovered, while the interest amounting to N2, 980, 440.32 was yet to be redeemed as agreed.

Mr. Adam accused the past executives of the association for its inability to meet the demands of its members, improper record keeping and lack of accountability which made most members to withdraw from the cooperative.

The chairman of the society of the college, Mr. Manga A. Gilla in his remarks also expressed dissatisfaction with the past exco for failing to meet the needs of the members.

Mr. Gilla alleged that the recent handover ceremony was only a make-belief in the sense that no records of assets and liabilities were handed over by the former exco, a situation which prompted the authentification of assets and liabilities of the society by the present exco.

He said that his administration found a total sum of N35,979,884 being loan in circulation.

This, according to Mr Gilla made it difficult for them to start any operation "since there were no accounting records in either books or computer to recover the N2,980,440,32 interest which supposed to be returned interest for the growth of the cooperative since inception".

Also speaking at the meeting, the provost of the college, Alhaji Muhtari Waya said the resolutions of the crisis affecting the cooperative was done to ensure that, the cooperative and not suffer too much loss and to restore the confidence of the members.

He commended the present leadership of the society for ensuring transparency and accountability and urged members to increase their savings and heighten their patronage for the growth of the cooperative.

It will be recalled that, when the present provost of the college took over the mantle of leadership in 2006, he dissolved the exco of the cooperative because of alleged misappropriation of funds and a panel was constituted to investigate the situation.

Despite the problems militating against the growth of the society, it recorded a net profit of N4,580,337.15.

The Annual General Meeting was the first of its kind since the establishment of the cooperative ten years ago and was well attended by the members.