By Sam Kaye
The Students of the post graduate diploma class, Consultancy service, Ramat Polytechnic have called on Governor Babagana Zulum to wade into alleged exploitation being exhibited by some staff of that service against them.
They equally called on the Commissioner of Education, Engineer Lawan Wakilbe and the Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr Bukar Abubakar to set up a committee of enquiry to investigate the case of extortion of money going on in the school of post graduate diploma, within the consultancy service of the institution.
One of the students of the post graduate diploma class, also a serving teacher in the state speaking on condition of anonymity said that with the economic hardship been faced by Nigerians and citizens of Borno State, he was appalled that consultancy lecturers were exploiting students in such flagrant manner.
“Why would the lecturers of the consultancy unit request and demand students to pay the sum of Fifteen thousand naira for their Project Topics to be approved?” he asked.
He said it was disheartening and unfortunate for an institution like Ramat Polytechnic to allow such an ugly trend to be taking place in its premises.
He added that most of the students of the post graduate diploma class were State Government teachers and national youth service Corps (NYSC) members who had to struggle hard in order to squeeze and save money to pay registration fees and buy handouts to ensure they graduate with good grades.
The student regretted that he has never heard or seen a situation where he has to pay money to get approval for his project topic except in Ramat Polytechnic Maiduguri.
He then called on the attention of stake holders in the Borno education sector to intervene into the ugly trend as many students can not afford to pay the said amount being demanded and they also want the ugly trend to stop, before it drags the name of the institution into the mud.
When contacted to respond on the scandal, the Rector of the institution Dr Bukar Abubakar said he was very busy and was unable to respond to any form of interview as at the time of writing this report.