PGDE Students In Osun Groan Over Alleged Extortion By NTI

By Adegbola Babalola

Some students of the Post Graduate Diploma in Education, PGDE, at National Teachers Institute, NTI, have cried out over alleged extortion by the Osun state coordinators of the programme.

The students, under the auspices of Concerned Students, called on the state coordinator of the programme to call other centres Coordinators to order.

They alleged that the coordinators are using the programme to extort unsuspecting students by threatening to fail them if they refused to pay certain amount of money.

According to the students, many of them are still struggling to pay the N12,500 ordered them to pay, while some coordinators are threatening to deny them ten marks if they refused to pay another certain amount.

They alleged that a coordinator who is also a Director at the state Ministry of Education (name withheld) has been using the class representative in one of the centres, Rasaq Mutiu, to extort students.

They alleged that a private WhatsApp group, was created by Mutiu and named “NTI 2018 Matured Minds” where the Centre Coordinator promised to add ten marks to the scores of those in the group.

One of the students, who said he was in the Matured Minds group, explained that the group was created after the class representative has discussed it in the class to pay N5,000 to ‘settle’ the coordinator and the students rejected the proposal.

According to the student, the coordinator of the affected centre has directed the class representative to get 40 people, promising them that they will be given 40marks in their test.

They threatened to release names of those involved in the extortion and forward it to the headquarters of the NTI if necessary action is not taken by the state coordinator to check them.