Poly student accuses lecturer of extortion, withholding result

OSUN (Sundiata post) – A student of Oduduwa Polytechnic, Ile-Ife, Osun State, who gave her name as Jesulayomi Adedini, has accused a lecturer of the institution known as Ogunjana Adeolu of extortion and deliberate attempt to frustrate her graduation from school.

It was gathered that Adedini wrote her final National Diploma examination from the Department of Tourism and Hospitality of the Polytechnic in July 2023, while the lecturer is said to be the Head of the Department for the same course in the institution.

Even though Adeolu told our correspondent via a telephone interview on Tuesday that he was not responsible for the student’s delayed result, the aggrieved student insisted that the lecturer’s refusal to clear her final year project was an attempt to keep her in school despite paying him N46,500 for the project.

Adedini said, “I finished my National Diploma last June. He (Adeolu) has refused to release my results and projects. He said he would continue to hold on to my results because the school management is also owing some salaries. Even the school authority said they have been calling him to release my project results, but he has refused.

“He is our Head of Department. There were four people in our department. He has cleared two of us. We were supposed to do the project ourselves, but if we did that, he would return it to us and claim it was not done.

“The first time he collected N35,000. Later in February 2024, he demanded another N5,000. And then he collected N6,500 for result collections. So, in total, he collected N46,500. There were others he collected over N50,000 from.”

Reacting to the accusation, Adeolu denied that he was responsible for the student’s delayed results but confirmed that the money he collected from her was to help her write her project despite being the supervisor.

Adeolu said, “I am a common employee. Whatever is happening to her results is not my responsibility. She is supposed to see the management to find out what the issues are. You should have enlightened her on the appropriate way to go.

“Even if I handed over what I have with me to her, I could receive a query. She should meet the management and not me. She’s only creating problems for herself.

“Well, I cannot say much about that (the money allegedly collected). She was the one who approached me to help her with her project. She can’t expect me to write a free project for her. I am the supervisor. I am the one who put her through it. That’s just what I did for her.”

Contacted, the polytechnic Rector, identified simply as Siyanbola, told our correspondent he was at a meeting on Tuesday.

However, all efforts to have the rector speak on the issue proved abortive, as his mobile phone had either not been reachable or had poor network coverage since Tuesday.