Polytechnics to still screen admission seekers after UTME

The chairman, Association of Rectors of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria (COHEADS), Alhaji Mas’ud Elelu, has said that polytechnics and colleges of technology in Nigeria will still conduct another screening for their prospective students after the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

The Federal Government recently stopped tertiary institutions across the country from conducting post-UTME tests.

But speaking with journalists in Ilorin at the weekend, the COHEADS chair, who is also the rector, Kwara State Polytechnic, said his school would conduct “pre-admission security and certificate verification screening” for those seeking admission into the polytechnic.

The screening, according to him, is necessary to avoid admitting applicants of questionable character.

“We need to be careful in order not to admit students who had been expelled from other institutions and as well ascertain the genuineness of applicants’ certificates,” he said.

Elelu said the institution devised the new method of screening applicants “based on its experience.”

He said the screening was to guard against admitting students with fake certificates or cultists expelled from other schools.

Asked if the screening would be free, Elelu simply said it would have “financial implication.”

The rector also announced that the Kwara State Polytechnic would soon begin a clampdown on operators of cyber cafe on its campus, following the arrest of one of them with the school’s forged audit stamp and document carrying forged signature.

He said the cyber cafe operator was arrested following intelligence gathering from the institution’s internal security network.

The suspect, he said, had been handed over to the Department of State Security Services (DSSS) for further investigation.

Elelu warned that any staff or students found culpable in the issue would not be spared.

As part of the polytechnic’s anti-corruption crusade, the rector said two members of staff of the institution had been sent to the headquarters of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) for training.