By Daud Olatunji

THE Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, was formally established in 1980 as Ogun State Polytechnic during the military administration of Harris Eghagha, but, the first set of 220 students were admitted in January, 1979.

Thirty seven years after its establishment, there have been cases of sexual misconduct, examination malpractices among other vices. Many lecturers and staff have been fingered as guilty of engaging in some of these sharp practices.

However, the appointment of the institution’s Rector, Prof. Oladele Itiola by the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun seems to be a saving grace.

In a bid to clear the rot in the institution, the Rector approved recommendations of a panel set up to look into the vices that have besieged the institution.

Part of the recommendation was that the Director, School of Business and Management Studies, Mr Mukaila Ademuyiwa be removed, while five lecturers were demoted over alleged result manipulation and illegal writing of examination.

The affected five lecturers are Dr Adesola Munir, Mr Pius Agbebi, Mr Rasheed Oduwole, Mr Kayode Ogunwede and Mr Mutair Ajayi.

The Polytechnic’s Public Relations Officer, Sulaiman Adebiyi while explaining the rationale behind the development, said the institution demoted six of its teaching staff and suspended two to ensure quality control and address acts of misconduct amongst staff and students.

The statement said the development was geared towards improving the institution’s quality assurance and academic excellence.

According to Adebiyi, all the six lecturers were demoted by one grade level.

He said: “while four of the demoted lecturers are from the department of Accountancy, another is from the department of Banking and Finance, and the sixth, from the institution’s Hospitality Management Department.

“Apart from the demotion of the six lecturers, two have been placed on suspension with immediate effect from the Polytechnic for six months, amongst other sanctions.”

Disciplinary actions

Meanwhile, it had been earlier reported that a director, a Head of Department and four lecturers of MAPOLY have been demoted by the school management for various offences, ranging from gross misconduct, examination malpractices and result manipulation.

The School management, in a separate letters signed by its Deputy Registrar, Mr. S. A Ashaye and made available to journalists in Abeokuta, was addressed to each of the affected lecturers.

The letter indicated that the decision was taken based on the report of the Staff Disciplinary Committee (SDC) on the alleged case of result manipulation levelled against a number of staff, who examined Higher National Diploma course in the Department of Accountancy during the first semester examination of the 2015/2016 session.

Vanguard gathered that their demotion was based on the report of the institution’s SDC, set up to investigate all the allegations levelled against them.

It was further gathered that the letters sent to the affected staff were signed by the Deputy Registrar (Establishment) Mr Ashaye on behalf of the school Registrar.

Ademuyiwa was said to have contravened the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) convention on grading and the existing extant rules of the Academic Board relating to grading and presentation of scores on the score sheet.

Found guilty of awarding bonus marks indiscriminately  in a particular examination, he was placed on six months suspension with half pay, removed from the position of Director and demoted by one grade level.

Ajayi was alleged of contravening the extant rules of concession for upgrading and was removed from the position of Head of Department of School of Business Studies.