EKSU/AOCOED-affiliated programmes: Ex-students capitulate, to pay N25,000 results’ notification fee

IT appears former students of Ekiti State University (EKSU) on affiliated education degree programmes with the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Otto-Ijanikin, Lagos (2016 set) have finally been browbeaten to pay the mandatory N25,000 fee for collection of the notification of their result – something they had earlier vowed never to pay unless it was reduced to N15,000, or less.

They say they are backing down so as not to further waste precious time and resources.

Under the aegis of Concerned Students, the ex-students numbering over 200 had since 2018 been at loggerheads with the management of AOCOED for not releasing their final results two years after graduation and also for charging N25,000 as fee for collection of statement of result.

The group has now said that while the delay had already denied many of them employment opportunities, promotion at work places and hindered further studies, majority of them are family men and women and can no longer afford to waste any more time.

The leader of the group, Mr. Hassan Raheem, who made this disclosure in an exclusive chat with Tribune Education, said the current development stemmed from disagreements among members who could not agree on whether to continue with their earlier stance or succumb to college management’s decision.

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“You know there is bound to be division among people in an issue of this nature. And I don’t need to mention any name,” Raheem said.

He explained that those who wanted the struggle to continue based their argument on two major premises: first, that such action would prove a point to the college and similar institutions that collecting school fees from students without remitting same to appropriate quarters as and when due is not only a breach of trust but also fraudulent.

Secondly, he said such action would help redress, once and for all, the ‘injustice’ evident in asking students to pay as high as N25,000 to collect notification of results (not certificate) at AOCOED when their mates in other EKSU-affiliated colleges paid only N15,000 to collect the same result.

However, according to Raheem, there are those who took loans to pay their tuition fees and believe that further elongation of the time is not in their favour, especially also nursing the fear that while they wait further, university staff may embark on indefinite strike that could last many months, thus compounding their already unfavourable conditions.

“We feel that should workers embark on indefinite industrial action with our issue still pending, we may have to wait for many more months or years, and that will further affect our career progression,” Raheem said.

The group has, therefore, agreed to write officially to the management of AOCOED  to communicate that decision.

The group has to officially write to the college because it had initially sent a petition against the management to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to wade into the matter.

Now, the plan is that the school management will go with the college’s lawyer and the students’ letter to the anti-graft agency to show that they are indeed ready to collect their results.

Raheem said: “Though we know the implication of accepting (in writing) to pay the contentious fee and we are unhappy about it, we will clearly state our own condition that our results must be ready for collection within two weeks maximum. We have paid so much to earn the results.

“Each of us paid N100,000 tuition fee (excluding other levies) yearly, and that amounted to N400,000 in four years – and some had one extra year. ”

Meanwhile, Tribune Education contacted the director of external programmes at EKSU, Professor Michael Omirin, on the latest development.

The professor of Tests, Measurement and Evaluation, again, absolved EKSU of blame in the long delay in the release of the results to AOCOED, saying that his office had been done with the results and the university’s senate had since approved and passed them to the appropriate department for further action.

“That is where my work as director of the satellite programmes for EKSU ends,” he said, and directed this reporter to speak to the director of academics or the public relations officer for further inquiries.

When contacted, the public relations officer, Mr Bode Olofinmaugun, said he did not have such information and that the non-academic staff union (NASU) members were on strike.

However, the director of the programme at AOCOED, Dr Joseph Owoso, has insisted that the results’ notification is yet to be issued by EKSU.

When contacted, Owoso said he was aware that the results had already been approved and that at the moment, the students’ financial status as regards school fees and other levies were being checked electronically to ascertain who had paid fully and those who had not.

He faulted the students’ agitation, saying they were just being unnecessarily controversial, as they were not the first set under the affiliated programmes to pay for result notification.

Owoso also dismissed the claim by students that AOCOED is owing EKSU as totally true.

According to him, the about N930 million they claimed the college is owing EKSU is actually being owed by the students, as many of them across many sets did not pay school fees and other levies in full.

“That is the stage we are at the moment, and the department that is handling the verification will compile the lists for the department that will issue the notification and all will be done in a moment from now.

“Any student who is indebted to the school will have his or her result withheld,” he said.

But when asked to give specific date when the notification could be due for collection, he said he would not do that so as not to be castigated if such date failed.

“What I can say is that the department handling the verification was affected by the (non-teaching staff)’s warning strike last week, and I will need to ascertain that the notifications are ready before I go to EKSU to collect them,” he explained.

About the contentious N25,000 levy for each student to collect the notification, the director said the students have no choice but to pay the amount and that the college has no intention to reduce it now or in the near future.

“That is the same amount the set before this 2016 set paid, and those after will also pay; more so that the college has already paid to EKSU in advance to process the results and the students will have to pay back the money.

“So, any student who wants the notification will have to pay the amount and also have an up-to-date payment bill records of all fees and levies with the college,” he re-emphasized.