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Abia Poly in ND Result Scandal as State Assembly Probes Accreditation Withdrawal by NBTE
Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo
The Abia State Polytechnic is grappling with an alleged academic fraud scandal after the institution issued a National Diploma (ND) statement of result prematurely to an Aba-based businessman when he had not completed his academic programme.
The latest blight in the institution is coming on the heels of the withdrawal of its accreditation by the National Board on Technical Education (NBTE), an ugly development which the Abia State House of Assembly has started probing.
An Umuahia-based legal practitioner, Okey Amechi, SAN, blew the whistle on the statement of result scandal in a petition he sent to the Rector, Prof. Kalu Osonwa, questioning the manner a student, Chief Gregory Okwuchukwu Okafor, obtained his National Diploma result from the institution.
The legal practitioner was not alone in sounding the alarm bell as a human rights organization. The Centre for Reform and Public Advocacy (CRPA) has petitioned the state-owned polytechnic over the same issue.
What appeared to have exposed the alleged academic fraud was the election by the Aba Sports Club in 1926, in which the minimum qualification for a member to contest for the office of president was pegged at the National Diploma.
The SAN, in his petition, alleged that Chief Okafor, a businessman in Aba, and a member of the Aba Sports Club 1926, did not possess the minimum educational requirement at the time he indicated an interest in vying for the office of Club President in the election scheduled for December 2021.
He stated that the businessman recognised his academic deficiency and had enrolled on a programme in Business Administration and Management at Abiapoly during the 2018/2019 academic session.
“Surprisingly, Chief Okafor, who had up to the closure of nominations for the office of the President of the Club, maintained he was a student of Abia Polytechnic, suddenly brought an ND statement of result, dated November 30, 2021,” the petitioner said.
According to him, what the statement of result purportedly showed was that Chief Okafor had graduated from the school with effect from August 1, 2020.
The legal practitioner questioned the authenticity of the ND statement of result purportedly issued to Okafor in August 2020, even with the disruptions in academic activities across the globe in that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amechi further raised doubts on the statement of result issued to Chief Okafor, arguing that as of December 2021, Abiapoly was yet to graduate students of ND programmes that were admitted during the 2018/2019 session.
He pointed out contradictions in the statement of result as it was dated November 30, 2021, and issued with the letterhead of a long retired Registrar, Mrs C.A. Nwabughiogu, instead of the current Registrar, Mr. Oriaku Chinyere.
Reacting to the petition, Oriaku insisted that “those things are false allegations being peddled by those who don’t know the operations of the institution.
His predecessor, Nwabughiogu, denied involvement in any wrongdoing.
It was gathered that an activist, Mr Collins Opurozor, has drawn the attention of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) into the matter by partitioning the anti-corruption agency.
