On Friday, ex-students of Anambra State Polytechnic, Mgbakwu, disrupted the institution’s convocation event by blocking the gate and denying visitors and certain management employees admission.
The demonstration, according to InsightnaijaTV, was organized by former students of the institution and was in response to the issuance of diplomas that had been rejected by other institutions, including labor companies.
“Some of our students who graduated here and attempted to further their education, their certificates were rejected and described as invalid,” Frank Onyekachi Imo, a former student of the institution, said in a video circulating on social media.
“How can the school be talking of graduating students, when the students they graduated many years ago have not been mobilized for service?”
“I graduated here in 2015, and I have yet to be mobilized for service, nor have I received my certificate,” claimed another student leader who talked to journalists. Some of our previous students who received certificates were turned down by other universities where they sought additional education, and their certificates were deemed invalid.
“How can the school be talking of graduating students, when the ones who you graduated have not been properly taken care of.”
According to reports, the protesting students also prevented Prof Kate Omenugha, the Commissioner for Education, from entering the university on the day of the convocation.
The students demanded that the institution’s leader be fired, alleging that she had been the Rector since 2007 and that the number of students, as well as the quality of the production, had declined under her watch.
“We are appealing to Governor Willie Obiano to look into the polytechnic. This is a state-owned institution, and there are other institutions that were founded by other states recently, but their certificates are recognized and their students mobilized for service.”
When television crews spoke with Mr. Chinedu Ejikeme, Dean of Student Affairs, he claimed that the convocation had taken place, and that just a few students chose to disrupt it, but that it had taken place.
He said: “It was just printer’s error that some of the students’ names did not appear for convocation, but from this week, they will be able to take their results.”
Attempt to reach the spokesperson of the polytechnic, Mr Albert Chukwuanu was not fruitful.
