A corruption scandal has been reported at the University of the Gambia‘s Faculty of Law. An investigation by LTN has revealed that the Faculty of Law at the UTG is alleged to have been engaged in corrupt practices, professional misconduct, and administrative blunders that undermine the UTG Policy and Administration. Both Professor Olaoulu Opadere, the Dean at the Faculty of Law, and one Sainabou Ndow, a Faculty officer dodged questions from LTN on the allegations.
Corrupt practices such as salary payment to adjunct lecturers (names withheld for now) every month instead of every semester as stated in the UTG policy, recruitment of some Nigerian lecturers at home, and giving them benefits like expatriates when they are not expatriates among many others have been detected.
LTN confirmed that there are some locally recruited Nigerian lecturers (names withheld for now) who are benefitting from incentives reserved for expatriates. This practice is said to have been happening for some years and continues to happen under the leadership of the Dean of the Faculty of Law Professor Olaoulu Opadere, a Nigerian.
Information gathered by LTN suggests that initially, adjunct lecturers were been paid every month. It was later changed in the UTG and they should be paid every semester, but unfortunately, that is not the case for the Faculty of Law.
When contacted for his reaction to the allegations, Professor Olaoulu Opadere, a Nigerian national and Dean Faculty of Law UTG promised to reply only when he is at the UTG. He gave LTN an appointment on Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 pm which failed. We sent him all the questions and asked him to reply but he refused and insisted he will only talk when he is at the UTG in the presence of his colleagues. He also failed to schedule a second appointment.
In a similar development, LTN also received reports of allegations against Sainabou Ndow, a faculty officer at the UTG. She has been reported to have been allegedly receiving bribes from students and allegedly engaged in sexual relationships with her seniors like her former Dean (name withheld), among other professional misconducts.
LTN contacted Sainabou Ndow several times directly and via Whatsapp but read the messages and refused to reply deliberately. She also refused to pick up her calls even though we introduce ourselves and text her details of our investigation.
Meanwhile, LTN has reached out to some of the adjunct lecturers (names withheld for now) some of whom are no longer at the UTG but they are yet to reply on this allegation. More details will be published in the coming days as the investigation continues.
