Group petitions Ugwuanyi over alleged sharp practices in Enugu schools

A non-governmental organisation, the Anti Corruption
Awareness Organisation Nigeria (ACAO), has sent a strong-
worded petition to the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi, over alleged fraudulent activities in the
management of public secondary schools in the state, by the
Post Primary School Management Board (PPSMB).
The group is also accusing the immediate past PPSMB of
ripping off parents, students and promoting mediocrity in the
system, stressing that this was responsible for the poor
performance recorded by students of public secondary schools
in the state and contributes immensely to the loss of interest
by members of the public in public schools.
In the petition dated July 23rd, 2015 and entitled, “Save
Education System in Enugu State,” the organisation
specifically alleged bribe-for-juicy posting of schools’
principals; fraudulent use of scratch cards; imposition of
levies and extortion of students by school heads, under the
watch of the immediate past Permanent Secretary of PPSMB,
Mrs. Josephine U. Onyia.
Sources at the PPSMB told The Guardian, however that since
the PPSMB was dissolved about a year ago, it was yet to be
reconstituted.
Since then, however, activities of the agency had been run by
permanent secretaries. Mrs. Onyia, was however redeployed
to the Water Resources Ministry recently, and replaced by
Mrs. Favour Ngozika Ugwuanyi. Ugwuanyi held her maiden
briefing with the staff of the agency penultimate week.
The
petition signed by the organisation’s Director of Intelligence,
Mr. Chijioke Attah, State Legal Team Leader, Chuka Machie
and Josephat Omeke, and obtained by The Guardian, detailed
how the immediate past board, in connivance with some school
heads, constituted set backs to the promotion of quality
education at secondary schools in the state and urged the
governor to probe PPSMB activities in order to save public
secondary schools.
The organisation stated that its findings were based on
investigations it conducted recently in public secondary schools
in the six educational zones of the state, comprising Agbani,
Awgu, Enugu, Nsukka, Obollo Afor and Udi.
They NGO wrote: “Verifiable evidence has revealed that there
is decay and massive fraud at the PPSMB, and that many
school principals are being exploited steadily by the PPSMB in
connivance with the permanent secretaries. They charge
N250, 000, N300, 000 and more (depending on the students’
population), to post principals to a heavily populated school in
Enugu State.
“To post (transfer) a principal to a school and allow him/she
remain there, the principal has to continue to pay
gratifications, else another one that bids higher bidder will be
sent to replace the principal. These actions are taken at will
in most of the schools visited in Awgu, Agbani, Enugu,
Nsukka, Obollo Afor and Udi in the course of this
investigation.”
The petition cited the case of one of the newly retired
principals who was transferred from Community Secondary
School, Mbulu Owo, to the CSS Amagunze, which has a high
students population, after he allegedly paid over N300, 000 to
the board.
“The then principal of CSS Amagunze, who was replaced had
protested that he should be allowed to exhaust his three-year
minimum tenure in the school, having worked hard to build
the place. He was ignored because he could not afford the
kind of money paid by his successor,” it added.
Criticising the sale of scratch cards to students to check and
obtain their promotion examination’s result as being
“untimely,” the outfit said from its investigations, “Over 85
per cent of schools in rural areas have no computer studios,
and
no access to cyber/Internet cafés in their various localities.”
“Secondly, the fraud associated with the scratch card is bad.
The real cost of the scratch card as ascertained from the
producers, “Bronzebit Consult Ltd,’ with office at N0. 142
Zik Avenue, Uwani, Enugu is N150. 00.
“It was also discovered that the former Commissioner for
Education, Prof. Uche Okoro, approved an astronomical cost of
N800.00 per students for the scratch card, thereby
defrauding every student in government-owned secondary
schools in the state the sum of N650.00
“To add insult to injury, some principal of schools capitalised
on the foundation of the fraudulent action to increase the
cost of the scratch card from N800 to N1, 500 per student.”
The petition cited Idaw River Girls Secondary School,
Awkunanaw, Metropolitan Girls Secondary School, Ogui, City
Girls Secondary School as some schools, where the scratch
cards were being sold at abysmally high rate by the
authorities so as “to cover cost of transportation to where it
would be deposited into the designated account of the board
in charge.”
According to the organisation, registering of students for the
Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in public
secondary schools is another avenue where the students are
exploited heavily as there are no uniform rates, so principals
charge as much as they wish.
When confronted with these allegations, Mrs. Onyia, told The
Guardian that as a civil servant, she could not speak to the
press without authorization, adding that the petitioners
“wrote to the governor and I am entitled to respond to the
governor if called upon to do so. But making allegations on
extortions and what have you and supplying phone numbers
may not prove that they have enough evidence. So I am really
not interested until I am called upon or asked to respond to
the issues in their petition.”
Also contacted, incumbent Permanent Secretary at the
agency, Mrs. Favour Ugwuanyi, denied knowledge of the
petition saying she would not comment on the allegations
raised.
“I am a new Permanent Secretary in this agency. I have not
received officially, copies of the petition being referred to. I
cannot comment on what I know nothing about,” she said.