By Joseph Erunke, ABUJA

The management of Novelty Polytechnic, Kishi, Oyo State, has alerted the public of the activities of fraudsters using its name to operate satellite campuses in some parts of the country.
The school said four of its satellite campuses were currently being operated in Abuja, Ibadan, Lagos and Bida, Niger State without its knowledge.
To this end, it has also called on the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, to wield a sledgehammer on the illegal study centres by closing them down.
The Governing Board of Novelty Polytechnic, Kishi, Oyo State, speaking at a news conference in Abuja, distanced itself from the satellite campuses just as it clarified that it has never at any time, applied to the NBTE to establish campuses in the country.
It explained that it has never made such an application, given that NBTE as the regulator of technical education in the country, does not grant licenses for such.
Speaking, Prince Lanre Ogundipe, a member of the school’s governing body, explained that Novelty Polytechnic, Kushi has no satellite campuses anywhere, both in Nigeria and outside the country.
According to him, the three-year-old polytechnic does not have students outside its main campus in Kishi and equally does not affiliate with any school or authorise any individual or body corporate to do so on its behalf.
“From the eight departments duly accredited by NBTE for its over 400 students, Novelty Polytechnic does not run any satellite programme nor admit students into them.
Novelty Polytechnic which took off three years with 83 students, admits students for only the Ordinary National Diploma, OND, for the duly accredited courses,” he clarified.
The development came on the heels of the September 2023 warning by the NBTE to close down Novelty Polytechnic for alleged illegal activities.
Ogundipe recalled that the management of the school had in April 2023, written four separate letters to NBTE alerting it of the activities of a former canvasser for the school who forged the signature of the proprietor, cloned the polytechnic’s portal to open the campuses and extort several admission seekers.
“If the NBTE had carried out due diligence and acted promptly on the activities of the sacked canvasser, the situation would have been salvaged, he said.
He noted that before the illegal activities of the disengaged canvasser were discovered, he had defrauded the school of N50 million.
The fraud, he said was reported to the police, which led to the arrest and arraignment of the canvasser before a magistrate court and High Court, in Oyo State.
According to him, the two cases are still pending before the two courts.