Novelty Polytechnic Urges NBTE To Close 4 Illegal Campuses

Governing Board of Novelty Polytechnic, Kishi, Oyo State has cried out over alleged activities of fraudsters who run illegal satellite campuses in four cities in the name of the institution.

To redeem the integrity of the polytechnic and end the continued existence of the illegal campuses, the board has appealed to the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Kaduna to shut down the four illegal satellite campuses without further delay.

The board declared that there was no time the board or management of the polytechnic applied to the NBTE to open such campuses knowing that both the federal government and the NBTE as the regulator of technical education in Nigeria do not allow the existence and operations of such centres.

The four disputed and controversial satellite campuses are located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Lagos, Abuja and Bida in Niger State.

At a press conference in Abuja at the weekend, A member of the governing board of the institution, Prince Lanre Ogundipe, maintained that Novelty Polytechnic, Kushi has no satellite campuses anywhere in the world.

He said the three-year-old polytechnic does not have students outside its main campus in Kishi and equally does not affiliate any school or authorise any individual or body corporate to do so on its behalf.

Ogundipe said apart from the eight departments duly accredited by NBTE for its over 400 students, it does not run any illegal programme nor admit students into them.

Ogundipe said the polytechnic, which took off three years with 83 students, admits students for only the Ordinary National Diploma (OND) for the duly accredited courses.

The clarification came against the backdrop of the September 2023 warning by the NBTE to close down Novelty Polytechnic for the alleged infractions.

Prior to the NBTE warning, the board and management of the polytechnic had in April 2023 alone wrote four 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 in the name of Novelty Polytechnic, Kishi.

He said had the NBTE carried out due diligence and acted promptly on the activities of the sacked canvasser, the situation would have been salvaged.

Ogundipe lamented 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, Oyo State. The two cases are still pending before the two courts.

Undaunted, Ogundipe said the embattled and sacked canvasser engaged the services of some civil society organisations (CSOs) to write frivolous petitions against the polytechnic.

He therefore asked the NBTE to act fast by shutting down the four illegal campuses.