Published 24th Mar, 2022

By Yakubu Mohammed

In 2015, some 400 level students of the Department of English and International Studies, Osun State University, accused Professor Ameh Dennis Akoh, the then Acting Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, accusing Dr. Temitayo Amao, their level advisor, of manipulating results for students in exchange for cash or kind gratifications.

The stunned Professor Akoh (who is now the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics at Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Ebonyi State) would immediately swing into action.

“After the student came to me, I did some personal investigations,” Professor Akoh told FIJ.

He said he contacted Dr. Olabode Ojoniyi, a former examination officer in the faculty, to help verify the aggrieved students’ claims. Ojoniyi, using his archives as a former examination officer, was able to come up with substantial evidence.

“My file copies were used to crosscheck the computed results on master mark sheets and we discovered massive manipulation,” Ojoniyi told FIJ.

FIJ’s findings showed that Prof Akoh, on June 30, 2015, raised the issue of manipulation of 2013/2014 session results of some 400 level students of English and International studies against Amao at the meeting of the College of Humanities Board of Examiners.

After providing the background of the matter at the meeting, an investigative panel led by Dr. Akinmade Akande was constituted to torchlight the allegations. Dr. Ojoniyi, alongside Dr. Tunde Decker and Mrs. Olubunmi Alaje, was appointed a member of the Akande-led panel.

The report of the panel indicted Amao. She would later be suspended in June 2016.

When contacted, Dr. Amao refused to make comments. “My lawyer has not permitted me to speak with anyone,” she said. Amao suggested that FIJ talk directly to her lawyer, whose contact she refused to provide.

A document jointly signed by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria and the management of Osun State University shows that Amao manipulated the results of 94 students during the harmattan and rain semesters of the 2013/2014 academic session.

THE MANIPULATED RESULTS

No fewer than 12 English and History courses were affected in the results scandal. However, the magnitude of the manipulations varies for the 12 courses.

Further citing the document, students’ results were inflated by 10 marks and above or as the case may be. Some students had no results in particular courses but were given automated scores ranging from 40 upward. Similarly, some results were reviewed downward.

“Some were reviewed from F to Pass grades. Some were reviewed from lower pass grades to higher ones,” stated the panel.

The panel “noted that most of such students, particularly those who failed certain courses in 2013/2014 academic session, were supposed to have re-registered for the courses they failed in the current 2014/2015 academic session since it is supposed to be spill-over/extra year courses to fulfil graduation requirements”.

“The committee noted that such students knew they failed the courses as one or two of them acknowledged that they failed certain courses,” the panel stated.

“In spite of all this, all of them did not make any attempt to re-register for the courses they failed.”

After establishing the fact, the panel recommended that the management further investigate the scandal thoroughly. Insiders told FIJ that some of the students whose results were inflated had extra years, while some had their results reverted to their normal statuses.

THE COMPLICATED SEXUAL SCANDAL

Ojoniyi, unlike the other members of the panel, bore the brunts of the report. He would later be victimised through Ikwue Ejiro Mercy, a student of the Department of Languages and Linguistics, who had overstayed in the university.

“Around 2015, I was discussing with some students in front of my office when Ejiro walked through us,” Ojonniyi said, adding that he scolded her for lacking civility. Ejiro, according to him, later came to his office to apologise for her action and afterwards, they became close allies.

On September 8, 2015, the duo agreed to meet in a hotel. Unknown to Ojoniyi, Ejiro recorded their coition with her laptop camera.

Ojoniyi was convinced Ejiro was contracted by Amao as the footage would later be used to victimise him, changing the narration of result scandals.

“She was contracted and promised to be helped,” Ojoniyi told FIJ, adding that Ejiro was spending her eighth year on campus at the time. Ojoniyi said Ejiro later confessed to him that she was contracted for the role she played.

“Some operatives of the State Security Service approached Professor Abayomi Kizito, the newly appointed Dean of Faculty of Humanities in Ikire Campus,” said Ojoniyi. “They claimed they had made a video of me sexually harassing a female student for marks.”

It would later be confirmed that the operatives were contracted by Professor Olukoya Ogen, the earstwhile Dean, Faculty of Humanities, who was then serving as Provost, Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo State.

“Professor Kizito told me that Professor Ogen called him from Ondo, saying some SSS officers would bring a video evidence to him in Ikire,” Ojoniyi said.

Subsequently, a fact-finding committe led by Professor Chritopher Alebiosu was constituted to investigate the video evidence.

Instead of discharging its obligation judiciously, the committee, Ojoniyi said, started using the video to negotiate with him over his evidence against Amo.

“When the fact-finding committee of Professor Alebiosu was negotiating with me with their video, I got them perfectly recorded,” Ojoniyi said. “The committee told me to go and make peace with Professor Ogen to prevent the leakage of the video, but i refused.”

“They said Professor Ogen would not want the video to be used against me and that the only thing he expected of me was to withdraw my evidence against Amao,” Ojoniyi added. “I stood my ground and called on him to present evidence that I was manipulating results for students.”

The committe threatened Ojoniyi that it would make public the video evidence. “When they began to cross the lines, I began to fire back, calling for the investigation of Professor Ogen and his SSS’ video. I also called for the investigation of Professor Alebiosu and his fact-finding gang,” Ojoniyi said, stressing that he had written petitions to various quarters.

BLACKMAILING, DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER AND VICTORY

Following the committee’s insincerity in its fact-finding role, Ojoniyi had enough reasons to allege his image was being tarnished.

The feud continued until Ojoniyi was suspended on January 29, 2016, following a PUNCH publication by Femi Makinde.

“Without investigation, I was suspended for six months, from January 29, 2016, to July 2016,” he said. “I was reinstated because I was writing to them that my suspension was illegal and that I should be made to appear before the Staff Disciplinary Committe (SDC).”

“I wrote twice to the council, but they felt they had the power to ruin me. I then wrote to the State House of Assembly. I wrote three times. They did nothing. Finally, I wrote to the governor. I also wrote to him twice. He did nothing,” he said. ” Then, in 2018, two years after I had been writing and warning them of the consequences of my going to court against the university and the individuals that were involved in blackmailing and defaming my character, I went to court against them.”

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Ibadan, in its February 21, 2022 judgment, vindicated Ojoniyi, mandating the management of Osun State University to pay his salary arrears within the period of six months during which he was suspended. The court also described Ojoniyi’s suspension as illegal and wrongful.

When contacted, Garffar Shittu, the registrar of the school, declined to comment. He said the matter was still in court.

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