The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Obini Onuchukwu, who spoke on the issue, told South East Voice that those making the alleged malicious allegations that a deceased student was awarded marks due to the irregularities in the CBT were mischievous.
Obini, who spoke on behalf of the Management, explained that after an investigation into the matter, it was discovered that a student of Science Laboratory Technology, late Uche Henry, participated in all academic work, including examinations in August 2014 but died at about 9p.m. on Sept 17.
He said that the deceased student having passed all his course work had his results released along with those of his mates, but unfortunately some staff cashed on the situation with some few students in the department to blackmail the institution.
“It is really sad that people for their own selfish interests could politicize the death of a student. Would they do that if he was their child? It’s really unfortunate. It shows the level of desperation by people who are no longer allowed to operate their illicit business as usual.
“Personally, about three weeks ago, I was called on the phone by one Emeka Umeagbalasi, an agent of a Civil Liberty Organization, CLO, based in Onitsha to complain that some students in my institution were being victimized, that they were not given their actual marks. I quickly replied him that such no longer happened in the institution.
“I gave him an instance of a student who wrongly informed his brother working at War College, Abuja, that she was demoted to evening programme for no just reasons and when investigated, it was discovered that the girl went for her registration late, when the class was filled up and the Head of Department must not exceed the capacity so she had an option of going for the evening programme.
However, I requested Umeagbalasi to send the students to me, so that I could hear from them and possibly refer them to appropriate quarters.
“Two students came into my office and repeated what Umeagbalasi said on the phone, then added that even a dead student was awarded marks, just to make their point. I requested them to give me a short while to make inquiries and direct their case properly for investigations.
“But to my greatest surprise, few days later some journalists started calling me on the phone to react to press statement from Umeagbalasi, alleging same. In the course of the investigation, it was discovered that some staff hid under the students to perpetrate this act.
“They wrote to all government agencies they remembered to blackmail the institution. It was also discovered that some of those students who complained failed the course. This is criminal.
“We already have names of the staff and clear evidence of their involvement. The matter is being handled,” he said. On the allegations that students of Oko were no longer admitted in other institutions of learning because of dwindling standards in the Polytechnic, Onuchukwu said it was untrue.
According to him, the Federal Polytechnic Oko produced best students now, with its sophisticated electronic teaching aids and other facilities in place just as “more structures, better serene environment for learning, more committed lecturers, as more effective monitoring team moves round to ensure that lecturers are there to deliver lectures at the right time.
“Our students remain the best in the polytechnic across the country. The institution recently received letters of commen-dations from government agencies. Recently, we played host to several universities, polytechnics and colleges of education who came to understudy the magic of our super digital Rector, Prof. Godwin Onu whose name is synonymous with achievement.
“Our students are now hot cakes in the labour market, especially in engineering related courses; mass communication where we have the best radio and television stations for practical. It is on record that two of our students made recent presidential award by immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan for quality performance during their Youth Service programme, amongst other awards.
“Our Printing Technology came first in a competition among tertiary intuitions recently. It is also on record that in 2012 over 74,000 candidates preferred Federal Polytechnic Oko, in that year’s Joint Admission Matriculation Board entrance examination. Our institution is cult free. Our institution has understanding with no fewer than five foreign universities in areas of research and recently introduced over 25 new innovative courses including Aviation Technology which a contract worth N250 million has been awarded for the construction of the department at Atani campus.
“The Rector has also introduced a system of CBT, which checks lots of anomalies in the classrooms. The system increase speed and motivates students to read thoroughly. It checks examination malprac-tices because there’s a soft ware that shows students full details including photo card while in exam halls and questions are joggled.
It also saves the institution lots of money in printing of exami-nation materials and ensures easy computation of results, no missing scripts, no haras-sment … Over five institutions of higher learning have come to understudy the system.
As we talk two storey building marked to house over 3,000 brand-new computers fully networked to improve on the scheme is nearing completion. We have to be where others are. The world has gone digital, there’s little one can learn today without technology, that’s where we are, though not without challenges but we are fixing it.
“For the first time, the Students Union Government was encouraged to buy two brand new buses from their purse. The SUG has been very useful to the management and of course without them we have no business in the institution. They have also cooperated with us in the area of cultism.
The Rector who has received over 20 different prestigious awards for quality performance instituted a formidable anti-cult team to wage war against cultism and other nefarious activities and Oko is now cool.”