The Vice Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Professor Maduebibisi Iwe, has raised an alarm over the prevalence of fake certificates and transcripts in the international community that were not issued by the university.
This is even as he has said that students of the university who allowed themselves to be used by miscreants to destroy the properties of the institution during a riot on Tuesday would have themselves to blame.
Professor Iwe, who stated this on Wednesday while briefing the media about the riot, said that thieves and miscreants took over the school and used the cover of students’ protests to destroy valuable assets.
He denied the claims that a 60 per cent hike in fees was imposed on the students. According to him, some students, after lavishing their school fees on sports betting and other frivolities, tried to claim that fees at the institution were exorbitant.
Prof. Iwe, further stated that the university introduced a biometric policy to check the incidence of impersonation, missing scripts, delayed results and transcripts, and the like, pointing out that the ‘No Pay, No Examination’ policy he implemented was not new in the university.
The VC, who defended the biometric capturing policy, regretted that the institution was being inundated with questions from the international community about fake certificates to confirm if they emanated from the university.
“People print our certificates and transcripts and use them to fish for admission and jobs without such documents emanating from us,” he stated.
“The international communities have been [bombarding us with inquiries over] all manner of fake certificates [purportedly] from this university to verify; it is becoming alarming.”
He also indicted some lecturers in the university for indulging in “sorting” and for opposing the biometric policy.
“Our students and their disgruntled lecturer supporters do not want it because it will reveal their nefarious trade,” Prof. Iwe said.
He further averred that students, their sponsors, and the student union government were duly informed about the ‘No Pay, No Examination’ policy even before the start of the examination.
The Vice Chancellor denied reports that he was manhandled by students.
He also denied reports that the military was deployed to shoot students, saying that such did not happen.
The Senate of the university would meet to determine the level of destruction caused by hoodlums and the appropriate sanction to impose on any identified culprits among the students, he affirmed.
