Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe, a professor and vice chancellor, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) has accused some academic and Registry Staff of the institution of working against the good intentions of curbing corruption in the university.
Iwe also accused them of thwarting his good efforts of introducing Biometric capturing of students to solve several problems confronting the integrity of examination and service delivery to graduands of the university.
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The Vice Chancellor, who made this known at Umudike during a press conference with newsmen, said that the biometric system was deployed to stop impersonation in examinations, the adventure of missing scripts of students during and after examinations, adding that all these had been linked to timely examination processing and transcript release.
“What led to it was incessant direct requests for statement results, certificates and transcripts by graduands and external bodies that had made the university notorious. My administration decided to confront these anomalies, provide relief to our students, graduands, as well as parents and sponsors.
“Those who are working against this are unfortunately among our academic and registry staff who want the status quo to continue in corruption and making a bad name for the University.
“We resolved to solve the problem as we are solving others across the University,” the VC said.
On the implementation of the “No pay No examination” believed to have sparked the riot by some students in the institution few days ago, the Vice Chancellor said that the policy was not a new one.
He said that it had been so in all normal universities across the world.
“Is it not a matter of wickedness and affront that people should resume studies without paying for it? One wonders why any human being should support such an evil, especially at a time that the fortunes of Nigerian universities have dwindled. Many people who are holding tight to returning to campus to continue their academic engagement without paying, have been owing through the years. They are the population that upholds sorting with those lecturers who have refused to repent from sorting.
“This population is busy forging the university receipts and documents. They have gone to the level of forging bank remita that leads to a huge loss to funds. They forge university statement of results and escape with piled up academic credits as well as charges accruing to the University,” Iwe said.
He further said that the International Community had been loading the institution with all manner of fake certificates from the University to verify, adding that the development had actually become alarming.
“People print our Certificates and transcripts and use them to fish for admission and jobs without such documents emanating from us. These are the reasons for us to grow and adopt biometric capture, a system we use in banks and embassies. Our students and their disgruntled lecturer supporters do not want it because it will reveal their nefarious trade,” Iwe further said.
