Students result held for four years for no fault of theirs

By Eromosele Ebhomele

Some students of the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Noforija in the Epe area of Lagos, Nigeria could not receive their statement of result since graduating in 2011/2012 because their coordinator embezzled their school fees, a report tendered at the state House of Assembly on Tuesday showed.

The report presented by the chairman of the House Committee on Education, Lanre Ogunyemi, quoted the Provost of the institution, Prof. Olu Akeusola, as saying that the coordinator of the college’s Ijora Badia centre whose name was given as Otunba Olayomi, embezzled the students’ school fees.

But the House ordered the immediate and unconditional release of the results of the affected students stressing that the students should not be made to suffer for another person’s offence.

“In view of the long delay, the college should release the results of the students concerned unconditionally,” the Assembly ordered while the Majority Leader of the House pleaded that the institution be given up to a month to meet the order.

Other approved recommendations include that the centre’s current coordinator should liaise with the Director of Part-Time Studies for the release of the results after proper documentation, the students should fulfil all necessary pre-requisites as stipulated by the college in order to access their results.

Professor Olu Akeusola

“The communication gap between the college and its affiliated centres should be bridged and the college should centralise the method of payment of fees from the various centres in order to forestall cases of misappropriation/embezzlement of funds in the future,” part of the recommendations read.

Contributing, Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, who said the students should not be made to pay for the administrative gaps between the main campus and the part-time centres, agreed that the committee be given a time frame for the completion of results and urged the school to be more involved in the activities of its affiliate centres.

The committee said it observed that the delay in the release of the results emanated from the centre’s former coordinator, “who embezzled the students’ school fees which caused a huge debt profile for the centre.

“Some students do not have proper documentation in the files submitted to the main campus, hindering progress in compiling their final results; students on bonds from the centre have not redeemed their bonds officially.”

Prof. Akeusola said the school was magnanimous in marking, computing and compiling the results without adequate funds from the centre.

Before the House resolution, Ogunyemi told his colleagues that the institution’s Director of Programme, Dr. G. O. Olaleye, had told the committee that the results were ready but that the college would take extra caution in ensuring that results are released to only eligible students.