Osun NTI Office Denies Extortion Allegation

By Adegbola Babalola

The State Coordinator of the National Teachers Institute, Mr Edun Francis has denied the claim of extortion by some of the Post Graduate Diploma Students of the institute against its Centre Managers.

While addressing journalists after the meeting with the centre managers and class governors of the affected students, the state coordinator said that, there is an existing rules on extortion of students and the institute will not relent in dealing with anyone attempting to flout its directives.

He said the mandate of the institute is very clear which is to help its students through the programme and ensure that it fills its quota for every academic year, hence, its strict stance on the issue of extortion of students by any official of the institute.

Some of the students representatives who spoke at the gathering include Mr Rasaq Mutiu and Mr Adebisi Suraju of Technical Study centre, Mrs Akande Fatimoh,Mrs Ayofe Bosede, Akasi Ebhodaghe all of Osogbo High School Study centre and all claimed that there was no one extorting any students rather, the managers have always been of help to the students.

Akasi disclosed that the information is not in any way related to the study centre and could best be described as a rumour and should be investigated with a view to curbing such act in future.

Other representatives corroborated the position of the class governors, especially in the area of welfare, saying the managers always look out for their best interest and had not at any point ordered them to pay unauthorized fees to anyone.

The coordinator however instructed that if anyone had asked for fees from students of the institute, such fees should be refunded to whoever might have paid, warning that no one should drag the name of the school into disrepute.

Some students of the Post Graduate Diploma in Education, PGDE, at the Institute, had earlier cried out over alleged extortion by the state centre managers of the programme.

The students, under the auspices of Concerned Students, called on the state coordinator of the programme to call the centre managers to order.

The report had earlier mentioned centre coordinators instead of centre manager, however, the state coordinator has read riot act to both class governors and managers regarding the issue of extortion and urged students not to hesitate to report anyone asking for unauthorized fees to his office.