The Provost, Niger State College of Education (COE) Minna, Professor Yakubu Auna, has disclosed that over 9,000 certificates of graduates from the institution are yet to be claimed by their owners.
He told Daily Trust in an interview on Sunday that the certificates covered between 1995 to date, adding that some of the unclaimed stretched back to a period of over 20 years.
According to him, the owners failed to claim them despite appeals to do so by the College’s management through various media.
He said that the management had to take drastic measures by writing to the state government requesting that those who secured employment into the state and local government service with statement of results from the institution should be made to submit their original certificates.
“How can somebody graduated for over 10 years from an institution and such person would not care about a certificate he or she spent years and resources to acquire?” He queried.
He urged employers to take interest in knowing the status of their employees through regular screening exercises, adding that such measures would compel employees to update themselves regularly.
Professor Auna also expressed worries over the activities of certain individuals who “criminally” forged the institution’s certificates for the purpose of employment and other uses, describing the trend as “unfortunate and disturbing.”
“We have received the disturbing reports of some civil servants and other individuals parading themselves with forged results which bears our logo but we are liaising with the state government with a view to checking the trend,” he stated.
