By Festus Ahon, ASABA

PROVOST of the Federal College of Education (Technical), FECOTEC, Dr Josephine Anene-Okeakwa, yesterday, said she was not Shielding any staff of the college found culpable in his or her duties.

Anene-Okeakwa stated this when a team of Journalists led by the Chairman of Delta State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Comrade Mike Ikeogwu, said: “I feel bad that some persons for reasons best known to them, could drag my name unnecessarily in the media. 

“To the best of my ability, I have done this job honestly and sincerely. I am open to everybody in the College not just as a boss or colleague but as a mother. In all I do, I put God first, my conscience will not allow me to take side on any matter I know is true. I will always stand by the truth and ensure that justice is delivered.

“The issue is about a petition against a Chief Lecturer in the school, Mr. Okonta bordering on entry cadre. I was not the one who employed him. I was made to understand that he was employed as an Analyst, but as at then, there were no computers in the school, so he was seconded to be lecturing in the school of business. 

“The person we are talking about has been studying since he got engaged in the College to the effect that he obtained his Master’s Degree and then PhD. All his credentials are in his file, nothing has changed except that the petitioner was insisting that he had 3rd class in his degree at the point of entry. 

“But they never mentioned that he has also gone to upgrade himself. He had always been in the business of lecturing and when the College left the era of typewriter and procured computers, he was made the Head of ICT of the institution. Through him as a Departmental Head, the College got various accreditations. Such a person is not a neophyte or incompetent in the system.

“However,  when the petition was written challenging his entry cadre into the College, I called him as administratively demanded of my office and gave him query to that effect, which he responded to. I then set up a panel where Mr Samuel Ilabor who is the Chairman ACTU is a member. The petition was also forwarded to ACTU Chairman.

“After coming up with their report, that is from the Anti Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU), the report was supposed to go through the process,  but that was not done as the Committee sent a petition directly to ICPC in Abuja. ACTU has no power to hire and fire, they are a Management Committee that deals with ICPC. It was after their report had gone to Abuja, not even Benin which is our zone that they had a rethink and submitted a copy to me, and I minuted it to the management from where it should go to the Council for decision making.

“I can only deal with matters affecting staff from level 1-9, anything from there and above, it is the Council that handles that. They couldn’t wait for this process, they sent their petition to the media and started dragging my name and picture in their untrue story.”

“I didn’t shield Mr. Okonta, even though we know this whole thing is happening because of the cooperative election which didn’t go down well with the other faction. Mr Okonta was the Electoral Committee Chairman and for obvious reasons didn’t play ball as expected. And the people voted their choice because of the subsisting fraud case against the then incumbent group.”

Appreciating the NUJ for coming to get clarification from her and some management staff (Deputy Provost, Registrar, Bursar and another), the Provost expressed joy that at least there are professionals who do not engage in media crucification before hearing the truth.

Chairman of the State Council of the NUJ), Comrade Mike Ikeogwu in his brief remarks, expressed delight at the steady pace of development going on at College and commended the Provost, Dr. Josephine Anene-Okeakwa for the development the institution has recorded since Dr. Ignatius Ezoem left as Provost.

He wondered why anybody would want to smear the reputation of the College Provost, whom he said had from every available record distinguished herself in terms of inclusive administration,  transparency and accountability.