Enugu varsity battles admission racketeering

 This development, in the view of many residents of Enugu, has adversely affected the quality of graduates from the institution.  Early this year, a prominent lawyer at Edinburgh, in Enugu metropolis advertised a job vacancy to recruit young, brainy lawyers to work in his chambers. But the lawyer warned that law graduates from ESUT should […]

 This development, in the view of many residents of Enugu, has adversely affected the quality of graduates from the institution.
 Early this year, a prominent lawyer at Edinburgh, in Enugu metropolis advertised a job vacancy to recruit young, brainy lawyers to work in his chambers. But the lawyer warned that law graduates from ESUT should not apply. In his opinion, they were not qualified enough to work in his law firm.
A similar incident happened when an Enugu-based industrialist was recruiting university graduates to work in her mining firm. She emphasized that graduates from ESUT were not wanted. She said it would be a waste of time, money and resources for her to employ graduates, who she said, would not know their right from their left.
Daily Trust recalls that in August 2012, three graduates of ESUT who were participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme, were, midway into the service, sent packing for not displaying the level of competence required of the average Nigerian graduate.
Documents showed that the three graduates who were serving in Niger, Lagos and Adamawa states were rejected, with formal letters sent to the state coordinators by their areas of primary assignment and forwarded to the NYSC headquarters in Abuja.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Cyprian Ogbonna Onyeji, has found it quite an uphill task to deal with the rot in the institution. On several occasions, he had to take disciplinary action against members of staff and students who were into various scams that had smeared the image of  the institution. But his war against the bad elements suffered a huge set-back last year.
 On Wednesday, August 15, 2012, Onyeji was kidnapped by unknown gunmen as he was driving into the university premises. Three policemen attached to the vice-chancellor were seriously wounded in a gunfight with the kidnappers. There were rumours that Onyeji was kidnapped because he had hit hard at the network of influential syndicates whose trade was admission racketeering.
Although he suffered in the hands of his abductors, he regained his liberty after reportedly paying a huge ransom. But this incident, rather than discourage, has emboldened Onyeji.
In less than a year, the university authority has expelled about 500 students and 14 lecturers over admission racketeering and examination malpractice.
The ESUT Governing Council approved the sack of the affected workers at its 126th regular meeting at the Agbani permanent site.  The university senate had also applied different degrees of sanctions against an additional 150 students for their involvement in examination malpractice.
  A few months back, the governing council sacked a senior lecturer and four other staff for altering students grades. The affected staff were Ibiyemi Ariyo, senior lecturer, Ikechukwu Onah, lecturer II, Chikezie Aneke and  Nnamdi Okomba, assistant lecturers, and Christy Okoro, a computer operator, all from the Department of Computer Engineering.
Until his dismissal, Onah was head of the department. He was alleged to have engaged other members of staff in the department to alter some grades submitted to him by lecturers during the final compilation of the department’s final year results.
In February 2013, the university expelled 107 students who were at various stages of their study for alleged certificate forgery. The affected students who gained admission via direct entry were found to have forged the Ordinary National Diploma (OND) certificate they presented during screening.
The latest case of alleged forgery of results and tampering of grades involves one Dr. Florence Ntunde and Prof. Chinweuba Owo both lecturers in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Ntunde allegedly awarded grades to enable students who had outstanding courses to graduate. Also, without first obtaining approval from the university senate, Ntunde was said to have awarded marks to other students who had overstayed on campus. She was also accused of backdating the graduation of students to conceal her actions.
It was learnt that the university senate while investigating the matter, descended on Prof. Owo who reported the academic fraud allegedly committed by Ntunde. He was later suspended for one year by the governing council which was acting on the report of the senior staff disciplinary committee.
The basis of Owo’s suspension was that Ntunde computed degree results because the former (Owo) did not submit his own results.
Surprisingly, a year after the suspension, Owo is yet to come out of the ordeal. His plight has forced him to petition the Enugu State House of Assembly through the member representing Nkanu West, Iloabuchi Aniagu.
 In the petition, Owo claimed that, truly, he submitted the students result in question to the former Head of Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He contended that the results he submitted were used to compute the degree results of the students.
Owo informed the House of Assembly that the former head of department had on different occasions acknowledged the receipt of such results.
Owo also alleged that in a desperate bid to cover up the academic frauds of Dr. Florence Ntunde, the senior staff disciplinary committee adopted her false allegation of non-submission of his results so as to give the impression that she committed the academic offences because he did not submit his results during the period in question.
Professor Owo also claimed that Ntunde on July 6, 2012 wrote to the pro-chancellor of the university allegedly retracting the allegation of non-submission of results on his part.
 Effort by this reporter to speak with the vice chancellor, Onyeji and Dr. Ntunde did not yield result.  Also ESUT’s Director of Public Relations, Osita Ugwuoti, did not respond to text messages sent to him.
On her part, Ntunde said that she needed clearance from the school authority to enable her speak to the press.
However, Daily Trust learnt that Onyeji had embarked on biometric data capturing to identify registered students and reduce cases of impersonation during examinations.
He has also introduced a scholarship scheme for students with cumulative grade points of 4.5. The measure is to encourage academic excellence among the students.