First, it was a case of ghost workers. Now, Abia State Polytechnic is being rocked by allegations of certificate forgery. Some students are said to be conniving with some workers to swindle the institution of millions of naira, through the cloning of receipts for payment of tuition. SONNY NWANKWO from Aba reports
It all began earlier in the year when the management of Abia State Polytechnic, Aba discovered that some workers secured employment in the institution with questionable credentials.
The management promptly invited officials of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to vet some of the certificates. They found many wanting and the management sacked them.
A similar scenario played out at the postgraduate level. The institution’s authorities were shocked to find that the Masters and doctoral certificates tendered by some lecturers were fake. This was the first major problem the management tackled. Its Acting Rector, Prof Ezionye Friday Eboh, said verification of certificates would be periodic.
Besides, the management stumbled on another can of worms: receipt racketeering. Some students connived with some workers to clone the school’s payment receipts. This deal, according to the management, has been going on for years, with millions of naira lost.
However, with the introduction of e-payment by the management, luck seems to have run out for the racketeers. A team of workers from the Bursary Department, who were on school fees’drive, discovered that about 70 per cent of students in one examination hall had fake receipts.
This startling discovery, however, led to the suspension of the 2016/17 first semester examination last month, a development that resulted in protests, especially by students with genuine receipts who saw management’s action as ‘unjust’. It took a combined team of security personnel, who were deployed to the insitution, to stop the students’ actions from degenerating to chaos, though the exam was later rescheduled for a later date.
The management, which apologised to students for the inconvenience, said its action was aimed at tracking funds to stop them from ending up in private pockets.
But in the last three weeks that the exam was stopped, the money realised from tuition jumped from N43 million to N60 million.
Findings by The Nation revealed that the racketeers formed a triangle. The students on one side, some unscrupulous workers who aided them; and some cyber café operators who perpetrated the cloning of the original receipts that students use for clearance before being allowed to sit for examinations.
The source said the suspected workers who were caught pleaded guilty, asking to be given a second chance. They cited the delay in their salaries and arrears as the reason for soiling their hands. Others owned up to the crime for selfish reasons, the source added.
The source explained to The Nation how some unscrupulous cyber café operators cloned original receipts of the school, producing fake ones bearing the name of the impostor but with a different serial number.
Workers embarked on an industrial action over the non-payment of their salaries between last July and January, this year. It was suspended in March, following the government’s intervention which promised to clear outstanding debts before the year runs out.
Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu appointed Eboh, a professor of Economics, to take over from his predecessor, Martin Iheanacho, a professor of Sociology from the University of Port Harcourt.
Eboh’s appointment in February, sources said, was a prelude to allegations of managerial incompetence, sharp practices and unpaid workers arrears and salaries, among others, under Iheanacho’s watch. In the end, Ikpeazu removed Iheanacho and dissolved the polytechnic’s Governing Council headed by Chief Chukwu Wachukwu. Eboh took over in acting capacity, while Mr. Friday Omenihu was made the Bursar.
The new team was given the mandate to sanitise the institution and restore same on the path of greatness for which it was once reputed. The management promised to plug all leakages, pay workers’ salary arrears and raise the institution’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
However, it took Eboh only a few months to discover the fake certificates.
The problem has claimed some casaulties. One of the students who was the alleged kingpin of the syndicate has been apprehended and suspended. Another source told our reporter that a cyber cafe owner was being detained by the police.
It also has resulted in some positive results. In a telephone chat with our reporter at the weekend, Eboh confirmed that over N60 million had been realised from fees, from N43 million.
Eboh, who described the actions as ‘criminal’ declined comments on the kind of punishment that would be meted out to erring workers and students, adding that such move could jeopardise or preempt police investigation.
He said some arrests had been made by the police who were investigating the matter.
“If there is any time to shield anyone, it is not now!” Eboh said. “We are cleansing the system which was the reason why the government asked us (the management) to be here.”
He said the e-payment system was part of measures to curtail activities of fraudulent individuals who were hell bent on sabotaging the government’s efforts in repositioning the institution to meet global standard.
Eboh, who assured that management would pay off workers’ salaries arrears before this month, thanked Okezie for making the school’s monthly subvention regular, promising that the subventions would be judiciously used.
Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic Abia Polytechnic chapter Mr Precioius Nwakodo, said the union would not react until the management concluded its investigation.
“ASUP will not wish to speak on the matter. The management has inaugurated a committee to investigate the matter. We want to wait for the outcome of the investigation. We are, however, watching the development,” Nwakodo said.
Abia State Polytecnic Student Union Government’s (SUG) President, Igwe Samuel, turned down interviews on hearing our reporter’s mission; nonetheless, two students: Patricia Ebube, Kingsley Emeka and few others denied ever being involved in the school fees racketeering.
The students, however, lauded the management for taking such a bold step, calling for the arrest and prosecution of those involved in the act.
“We are not against the management of the school going after the people that are owing the school in one way or the other or maybe going after those who faked school fees receipts. But I am against the abrupt stopping of our exams. They should have arrested those involved in the evil act and allowed the examination to continue,” said Emeka.
“Now that they (management) stopped the exams just to allow them to go and pay the school fees which they (students) had refused to pay means that the management was not serious. Does that mean an examination body, such as the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB), will also suspend the conducting of their exams because a few persons, for instance, were caught cheating in the exam hall,” Ebube added.
“I have heard of this thing (receipt cloning) before, but I never believed it until our exam was suspended,” added Ebube.
“It is good that they have been able to apprehend some of the people they claimed were behind the illegality. Those caught should be prosecuted and punished to serve as a deterrent to students who may wish to engage in such ugly act in the future,” Ebube added.
