Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic, Aba (formerly Abia Poly), has regained accreditation for 33 programmes lost about three years ago, just as it introduced 17 new ones.
The Rector, Christopher Okoro, stated this when the new leaders of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abia State Council, paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
He explained that under him, the management of the polytechnic had made it easy for students to obtain their results without passing through lecturers to avoid exploitation.
He said, “Once examinations are over, all results must be uploaded within six weeks , four weeks for final-year students, and six weeks for the rest. With this, students no longer have to see their lecturers. We’re not just student-centered, we’re also staff-centered. All arrears of salaries have been cleared.
“We came on board with 36 months’ salary arrears, but Governor Alex Otti has supported us to clear them. We no longer owe anybody on campus.”
Okoro disclosed.
According to Okoro, the management has also ensured that staff members who were not promoted since 2008–2012 have been promoted up to 2022. “We’ve started the second phase of promotion that will take us to 2025. It therefore means that His Excellency has paid a debt he did not owe.”
Earlier, the Chapel chairman, Steve Oko, said they came to brief the rector on the activities of the chapel and explore ways of partnership with the institution. Describing the rector as a phenomenal agent of change, he lauded him “for transforming the polytechnic from obscurity to stardom” in less than two years.
Oko tasked the polytechnic on quality research work and assured the chapel’s readiness to project the state-owned institution in the media space. The chairman, who was elected last month, urged the rector to always patronise professional journalists and beware of quacks masquerading as newsmen.
