AMID several indictments by at least four separate panels against him, Yusuf Dalyop, the Head of Department of Public Health, Plateau State College of Health and Technology, Pankshin, is aspiring to be the provost of the institution. This is raising serious questions in many quarters.
Alpha Dubagari Isaac, a widower, said he promised to provide quality education for the five children his wife left behind. That was why he met with the Head of Public Health Department, Plateau State College of Health and Technology, Pankshin, Yusuf Dalyop, to discuss the possibility of his first child getting admission.
“I am an alumnus of the school, and he (Dalyop) was my lecturer. I asked him if he would assist to admit my son into Public Health department, to which he said yes. After we bought the form and did everything, my son’s name didn’t appear on the first, second, and supplementary lists. He called me in November that year and was asked why he didn’t see my son in school. I told him his name wasn’t on the list. He said I should forget the admission list, asking if didn’t know there was a supplementary list,” Isaac said.
Isaac said he went to the school thinking Dalyop would show him his son’s name on the supplementary list but instead he asked him to pay the sum of N35,000 to his secretary. He paid in cash and was given a departmental receipt of N15,000 only. This done, he said he then went on to pay the tuition fee and other charges into the school’s account.
“He (Dalyop) told me that most of the school officials were not available at the time and that all necessary documents would be given to my son upon resumption. When my son resumed, the department still collected N15,000 from him to open his file. Throughout the first semester, my son’s class representative repeatedly informed him that his name was not on the class register, yet Dalyop continued to collect more money from him, claiming it was to settle lecturers,” he said.
Sharing the receipt of payments and all the relevant documents with The ICIR, Isaac said he spent a total of N354,400, and it was only when he applied for a deferment for his son after the first semester, and was asked to complete a deferment form and attach the candidate’s admission letter that he discovered his son was never issued an admission letter.
“I wrote a petition to the provost; they invited me to give an oral testimony on how my son was admitted. During the process, Dalyop tried to persuade me to withdraw the case, even going as far as typing a letter and pressurising me to sign it, with the promise that once he became Provost, he would secure my son’s admission. I refused to submit the letter to the provost,” he added.
The college then set up a panel to investigate Isaac’s allegations against Dalyop.
The report of the investigation committee obtained by The ICIR indicates that the Chairman, Grace Hirkop and the Secretary, Istifanus Kopji Kumwar, signed and submitted its findings to the school management on October 18, 2025.
“Our findings revealed that Midah Chogkon was given a matriculation number and paid tuition fees for the 2024/2025 complete to the sum of N212,700 but had no admission letter to his name. The committee discovered that there were students who have actively been in class without admission letter and a search into the students’ files revealed that 29 students were not having the basic requirements to be admitted into the college,” the report read.
When contacted, Dalyop admitted giving Isaac the assurance that his son was offered admission. He, however, alleged that the Acting Provost of the institution instigated Isaac to write a petition against him because they were both contesting for the position of the provost.
“He was my student, a very nice student and wanted admission for his son. He bought form, and when they wanted giving him letter, the admission office said letter head paper got finished. The provost hid his file. All the files of those in 200-level students were with the provost for more than a year. Now this man came for deferment. He has paid all that needed for the deferment. When they went to the provost for the file, he told him that he should write… you know I am contesting for provost with him,” Dalyop claimed.
The College of Health and Technology is a key training institution responsible for producing frontline health workers for Plateau and neighbouring states, and it offers various accredited paramedical programmes at the certificate, National Diploma, Higher Diploma, and Professional levels.
Admission scandals and impersonation
Isaac’s experience is not in isolation. A report obtained by The ICIR revealed that six years ago at least three parents who had sought help from Dalyop to get admission for their children into the college, reported similar issues to the school management.
A committee comprised of Paul Walong Rabo, Shinplang F. Taldang, Pam Gambo, James Lohnan, and Peter Kwapzem, who submitted its findings to the school management on May 9, 2019, investigated an illegal admission scandal involving Dalyop.
The committee reported that Dalyop posed as the Head of Department of Community Health and demanded the sum of N213,000 from the parents of Ajala Elisha Karo and Dorcas Emmanuel, while making promises that were never fulfilled.
Talatu Elisha, Ajala’s mother, appeared before the committee and explained that her daughter was a student of the Department of Medical Laboratory Technician at the college but fell ill during the first semester and missed several continuous assessments, which affected her general performance and overall CGPA leading to her withdrawal.
“Al’amin confirmed to the panel that he and Ajala’s mother went to Pankshin in December 2018 to meet Dalyop who promised to assist. In January, Dalyop contacted Al’amin on phone to demand and collected N35,000.00 which, according to him, was to be given to the HOD, Medical Laboratory to facilitate Ajala’s admission processes. Not too long afterwards, another N40,000.00 was demanded and collected by Dalyop to be given to the Provost and Dean of the same school which amounted to N75,000.00 for processing Ajala’s promotion to the next class. When she finally settled down, he told her to pay for the semester fee which she did and a receipt issued to her to that effect,” the report read.
Talatu said that despite paying the amounts demanded, Ajala was not allowed to write the 200 level first semester exams except for the carry overs she had earlier written in the first two days of the commencement of the exam.
In the same report, Emmanuel Rabo, the father of another student, said his daughter, Dorcas, was a former student of Community Health, School of Health Technology, Alushi, Akwanga, Nasarawa State who had earlier withdrawn due to academic deficiency coupled with the fact that she resumed school late.
“Back then at home after withdrawal, while waiting for the next admission, his brother Al’amin Maidawa, who is an acquaintance of Dalyop approached him for assistance, seeing that he had earlier assisted Ajala with a similar withdrawal case. Dalyop having agreed to it and fortunately too, being the HOD Community Health, consequently demanded and collected the sum of N68,000.00 from Al’amin Maidawa to be given to the Provost and Dean, Community Health.
“He then invited Dorcas for an aptitude test with the sum of N12,500.00 being the cost of the exercise. She came for the aptitude test; wrote it in Dalyop’s office with him alone invigilating. Thereafter, she was told to resume lectures and along with N35,000.00 being the semester fee which she again complied with. When she had finally settled down and after a series of enquiries, she was informed that he was not HOD. It then dawned on her that she had no admission letter nor receipt for the payment made,” the report read.
The report explained that as the semester was almost rounding up and Dorcas realised that the transaction was just a hoax, she was prompted to request for the refund of her money and Dalyop told her that it was already used for the processing of her admission.
“Dalyop asked her not to be bothered about the semester exams but rather on getting indexed at the Board in Abuja. At this point Dorcas contacted Al’amin and informed him of this development. Al’amin in turn contacted Dalyop on this issue, only for him to inform Al’amin he was on his way to Abuja. At this point, they felt the need to get in touch with the College management which they eventually met with the provost to narrate their ordeals,” it added.
Impersonation
According to the report, Dalyop had demanded and collected the total sum of N115,500 for Dorcas’s admission alone, and he committed the offence of impersonation as self-imposed HOD, adding that it is a case of gross misconduct in line with the code of conduct for public servants and acting under all laws and regulations of the college code named “General Terms and Condition of Service for staff”.
“Directed that Dalyop Yusuf be suspended forthwith from the college pending the outcome of an investigative committee constituted for that purpose,” the report read.
The ICIR found out that a warning letter was issued to Dalyop on July 5, 2019 by the former Acting Registrar, Elisha Turgak Shehu, regarding the case, and that the Appointment and Promotion Committee relieved Dalyop of all responsibilities except for teaching and cautioned him never to engage in any case of indiscipline.
“It was not admission really. The lady was schooling at ERCC Aluchi College of Health, Akwanga and then she wanted a transfer to Baptist School of Health, Kafanchan. We were neighbours with one of their relatives, that was how they were led to my house and it wasn’t even in relation to my college at all. I worked in that Kafanchan before as a Provost of that institution. So when they paid the money and the transfer failed, we now said let’s refund the money. So that was what happened. You see, all these things were just frameworks,” Dalyop said in response to the case.
He admitted that the “Governing Council of the college sat on the case and warned that such things should not happen again.
The ICIR gathered that Dalyop became the HOD of Public Health Department in 2022.
Admission sabotage
In another document obtained by The ICIR, a three-member committee submitted its findings to the school management on April 29, 2025, following an investigation into the omission of the School of Environmental Health from the admission letters issued by the Department of Public Health for the 2024/2025 academic session.
The report signed by the committee’s chairman, Josiah M. Emmanuel, alongside members; Sunday Ezekiel Ngwallang and Sogotshep Benedicta Sebastien, revealed that it asked the Deputy Registrar Admission, Grace Hirkop why the “School of Environmental Health” was omitted from the admission letters of Public Health Department 2024/2025 Academic Session.
“She responded that she was not the person that typed the admission letter. Her role was to collect the admission letters, stamp and issue out to successful candidates. She added that when she collected the admission letters, she discovered that “School of Environmental Health” was omitted from admission letters of Public Health and she went and reported to Monday Dingse Computer Operator and Secretary to the Registrar. But Dingse told her that it was a directive given to him by the HOD, Public Health Department, Dalyop, and she went to the HOD, and complained but he said that it was okay that way, adding that since the admission letters were signed by the Registrar, she then assumes that it means the HOD is right,” the report read.
The Committee said Dingse told them that while the admission letters were being prepared, Dalyop instructed him not to include “School of Environmental Health” on the letters, and that he complied with the directive.
After querying other staff involved in the case, the committee asked Dalyop “Were you the registrar/admission Officer? If not, why did you say that “School of Environmental Health” should be omitted from the admission letters?” and he told them that the Public Health Department ought to be on its own as far as he is concerned, noting that, no official document was handed over to him prescribing that the Public Health Department is under the School of Environmental Health.
The committee reported that Dalyop refused to give a written submission after oral interview like each one of the interviewees despite being contacted days after to make his submission.
“However, he was later served with a “LETTER OF REMINDER” to make his written submission within 24 hours of receipt, but he refused to collect the letter and that he had not seen anyone in the college who would ask him to respond to the letter. And that even the provost of the college is too small before him to respond to his query and talk less of the mere ordinary investigative team,” the report read.
The panel recommended that the management should administer any one of the disciplinary actions according to Chapter 3, Section 3, rule no. 030301 and 030305 of Public Service Rules 2008 edition on Dalyop for the act of insubordination and giving unauthorised instruction capable of breaching peace and harmony based on its findings.
“Also, Section XIV pages 9199 of the General Terms and Conditions Service for staff of Plateau State Colleges of Health Technology, Pankshin and Zawan states the punishment as: Suspension, Reduction in rank, Interdiction, Dismissal, which the Management may feel to administer to the said Officer (Dr. Yusuf Dalyop),” it added.
The Dean School of Environmental Health, Sunday Ezekiel Ngwallang, who was a member of the committee acknowledged the recommendations and suggested punishment in the report, highlighting that the school management have not taken action since they submitted the report.
“No decision has been taken based on our knowledge. Yes, the Provost received the report but no acknowledgement letter. We don’t know whether the Governing Council is in receipt of the reply,” he said.
When The ICIR contacted Dalyop on this, he denied being involved in sabotaging the admission.
“Before they appointed me as head of department. they handed over the students to me. And that was what I saw in their file, in their admission letter. Nothing like School of Environmental Health there. I wasn’t the person. Am I the registrar of the college? No. Am I the provost of the college?,” he said.
Physical assault on colleague
The ICIR obtained another report submitted to the school management in February 2025 by a five-man investigation committee chaired by Paul Wallong Rabo to investigate the allegation of physical assault on the Dean of Student Affairs, Simon Gyang by Dalyop in October 2024.
Gyang told the investigative committee that he uncovered irregular departmental charges during a routine oversight visit on October 7, 2024, and ordered the N16,000 departments charging above the approved N10,000 association fee to revert to the official rate, noting that the directive was complied with by affected heads of department, and he found out from Dalyop’s secretary, Julcit Banchir that Public Health departmental fee was N30,000.
Gyang told The ICIR that while he was attending to students in his office, Dalyop allegedly threatened that he was “a very dangerous man, and claimed to have killed, Mancha Dalyop, a former staff and he would be “next.”
“While explaining to him why I had to take those steps, he just swooped at me and punched my face using an unknown object thereby causing physical injuries on my face,” he added.
Gyang’s allegation was confirmed by this reporter in the investigation committee report, highlighting that in Dalyop’s testimony, he claimed that Gyang had always been an agent of mischief used to fight him in many fronts denting his good image, witch-hunting him, assassinating his character.
“That Simon Gyang connived with the late Mancha Dalyop and went to his former place of work to get negative information on him for their nefarious activities, but much to their chagrin, they couldn’t get the harmful weapon needed to use against him,” the document read.
The committee noted that it found out that it was in the course of enforcing the collection of N10,000.00 for the Departmental Association that the Dean Students Affairs discovered that Dalyops books were being sold at N5,000.00 each to new students in the Department of Public Health.
“After careful examination and evaluation of the facts, the defendant, Dalyop Yusuf is guilty of misconduct and has made himself liable to punishment under the relevant provisions of the law regulating the conduct of public servants,” the report added.
One of the committee members who spoke anonymously said that the Governing council have not taken any action on any of the reports submitted to them.
Dalyop in response claimed that Gyang was one of those agents recruited by the current acting Provost, Emmanuel Mahanan, to witch-hunt him as his perceived rivals in order to advance his ambition of becoming Provost of the College, and alleged that it was the reason an investigative committee was hastily constituted after management heard from one side of the matter without first giving him an opportunity to respond.
Dalyop denied physically assaulting Gyang, instead it was Gyang who shouted at him when he came to his office to address an issue the dean had with his secretary.
“Simon Gyang has even written a letter through his lawyer to the Commissioner for Education because the acting provost is still using him. I wouldn’t know that he is not qualified to be a provost. I am very much qualified,” Dalyop said.
Provost ambition
Dalyop insisted that all the allegations were made by the Acting Provost to him spoil his chances of becoming the provost of the institution.
“In fact, since I came to that college, you know, I’m the only PhD holder in that college. The people I met there, I came and even passed them at grade level qualifications and otherwise. Of course, you don’t expect them to be clapping hands for me. It’s all about jealousy, gossips, rumouring, up and down, here and there.
“One of the requirements stated, that you must be a chief lecturer for a minimum of three years. You must, they say must, be a chief lecturer for a minimum of three years. He is just one year, this December. But what of other qualifications? He has other qualifications, but in terms of publications, licensing and other things, he doesn’t have them. Then, he wants to use desperation. He wants to use witch-hunting by hook or crook,” Dalyop said.
However, the ICIR saw a letter of promotion issued to Emmanuel by the Senior Staff Appointment and Promotions Committee to the post to Principal Lecturer in October 2022.
“I’m a community health officer. That is HND in Community Health from College of Health Zawang. Then a postgraduate diploma in Education Community Health from University College Hospital, Ibadan. Then because we don’t have a degree in community health. So there are areas by our registration board outlined for us to go and study to be relevant in the college and in the profession. Like guidance and counselling, educational psychology, public health, social works, health education and so on. I have first degree in Guidance and Counselling. Then I have master’s in educational psychology. Then PhD in Guidance and Counselling,” Dalyop said.
The ICIR reports that the institution released an advert in August last year, calling qualified candidates to apply for the position of Provost, Registrar, Bursar, and Librarian of the College.
It stipulated that qualified candidates are required to possess a master’s degree or Ph.D in a health-related discipline, must not be below the rank of a Chief Lecturer for a minimum of three years or equivalent
The ICIR gathered that Dalyop and the Acting Provost were the only contestants in the college invited by the governing council of the school in November for an interview.
This reporter obtained the credentials of Dalyop and Emmanuel. Dalyop has a first degree, Bachelor of Education, B.Ed. in Guidance and Counselling from the Federal College of Education Pankshin, an affiliated college of the university of Jos, in 2012; a master’s in educational psychology from the Nasarawa State University, in May 2019, and a Doctor of Philosophy, P.Hd., in Guidance and Counselling from Nasarawa State University in 2024.
Emmanuel has a diploma in Public health from the West Africa Health Examination Board in 1991, a first degree in Health Education from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 2003, and a master’s degree in public health from the University of East London in 2014.
Management response
“All the investigative reports were submitted to the management. Management sat down when it was submitted, we deliberated on it. We have just forwarded to the council. Actually, the decision would have been taken long ago because there was no council on ground,” the Acting Provost told The ICIR when asked if the college management received the reports of the investigation submitted to the management.
The acting provost explained that the disciplinary recommendations against Dalyop were not implemented because the governing council was inactive for some time, noting that the reports have been submitted to the council some months ago.
“All these investigative reports were submitted to the management. So, when the reports were submitted to the management, actually the decision would have been taken long ago but because there was no council on ground. And looking at the magnitude of his offence, these four that you see, these are the just few ones that were selected out of the multiple petitions written against him,” he said.
Emmanuel, referencing a 2019 investigation that resulted in a warning from the governing council, clarified that he was not serving as provost at the time, as he dismissed Dalyop’s allegation that he was inciting others against him due to their contest for the provost position.
“My position aspiring for the provost is not a do-or-die, I guess. If I get it, fine. If I don’t get it, there’s no problem. This is not the first time I’ve contested. There was a year I contested for this position. And I was the only person that was qualified from the college with two others from outside,” he added.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Governing Council, Chris Piwuna, said “I will not confirm receiving that report” noting that “I cannot comment” on the issue involving physical assault against Gyang.
“The matter that you just raised now is either in court or about to go to the courts. So, I cannot comment on it.”
“The Governing Council is supposed to be a policy-making body. We don’t get involved in day-to-day administration of the institution. And this point you just raised, I think, is completely in the purview of the management of the institution. So, it’s not our place to meddle in such issues,” Piwuna said.
The chairman said that there are committees at the management level that handle disciplinary issues.
“If they cannot, they bring it to council. That’s how it is done. And there are cases, disciplinary issues that are supposed to terminate at the management level. The provost, the librarian, the registrar. Those are the management staff. And maybe the director of academic planning. They could invite the person to be in attendance. But the principal officers of the institution are the management staff of the institution,” he said.
Piwuna said that the government through the council will appoint a new provost based on the requirements highlighted in its advertisement, insisting he would not discuss the issue any further.
While the institution is yet to address its internal issues, parents like Isaac have not been compensated with either an admission or refund of the tuition paid, as students like his son are have been disengaged from the school for months now.
“The management promised to give my son admission since the fault was not from me but when the last admission list came out, my son’s name was not on the list. My son has been at home” Isaac said.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.