Chidimma UCHEGBU
A civil society organisation (CSO), Transparency Advocacy for Development Initiative (TADI), has said it will withdraw all petitions written against the registrar of the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede.
Director of Media and Advocacy of TADI, Comrade Adamu Kabir Matazu, who made this known at a press briefing on Monday in Abuja, said the group has carried out thorough scrutiny of the allegations contained in the petitions and found them not only unfounded but baseless.
While warning detractors against spreading malicious and misleading allegations against Oloyede with the aim to impede successes being recorded in the Board, Matazu said TADI was misled in sending petitions to several quarters over fake allegations against the JAMB boss.
“For the records, our organization Transparency Advocacy for Development Initiative (TADI) sent a petition to the relevant Anti-corruption agencies with a view to causing them to jumpstart a thorough investigation about corruption allegations in JAMB under the watch of Prof. Is-haq Oloyede.
“Having been furnished with details of the activities of the Registrar and the way he manages public funds under his watch over the years we make bold to state that the information we got from our sister organization was misleading and do not depict the true happenings in JAMB.
“And when we investigative further, we found out that some people who are not happy with the reform the man has embarked upon which is aimed at sanitizing JAMB to deliver on its core mandate have been the ones misleading the public and are the sponsors of the spurious allegations of corruption against the Registrar because he has succeeded in stopping their business as usual for the interest of the nation.
“As a Civil Society Organization that has integrity as our watchword, we cannot continue to be part of the selfish motive of some few corrupt individuals in JAMB that want to return the Board to the old ways and are hell-bent on dragging a man of integrity to the mud.
“The Hallmark of true leadership is to own up and take responsibility for decisions made regardless of the outcome”, the group said.
While saying TADI initiated its earlier action against JAMB following a petition by its sister organisation, Integrity and Transparency Watchdog, Matazu said the anti-corruption and good governance body is against tarnishing the reputation of prominent Nigerians over fake allegations.
“We are totally and completely against rubbishing and tarnishing the hard-earned reputation of patriotic Nigerians who are diligently working to make Nigeria better.
“That’s why we are addressing the media today and inform them of our findings after a deep and exhaustive investigation of the leadership of Prof Ishaq Oloyede. We found out that the man has delivered beyond expectations,” he said.
Speaking further, Matazu lauded the several achievements recorded by Oloyede within six years in office, adding that the JAMB boss deserves special commendation for setting several new records in the exam body.
” Let me use this opportunity to lay out some of his achievements in the last six years; The Prof Oloyede-led management has through prudent management of resources, blockage of all corrupt channels yielded over N50 billion to the coffers of the federal government.
“In his first year in the office, he remitted N7.8b to the Treasury Single Account. The highest the Board had remitted in the 40years of it’s existence before Prof Oloyede was appointed was less than N70 million.
“The credibility of the examination has been improved through the credibility he introduced in the process chains and the inclusivity as of today the Board is one of the most sorts after public examination in Africa. The Board daily receives requests for partnership from sister organizations to train their staff on new forms of the conduct of the public examination.
“The Board through the renewed image brought about by the innovations of prof Oloyede conducts qualifying examination for several national and international organizations like the Nigerian Medical and Dental Council for medical doctors who study abroad and wants to practice in Nigeria, it conducts examination for West African College of Surgeon and the West African College of Physicians for different medical specialties, oil companies, EFCC, Immigration etc.
“To demonstrate transparency and not wait for any Freedom of Information request for financial transactions from the public, the Board without prompting publishes weekly financial transactions in its weekly publication called the JAMBULLETIN for public scrutiny. This is the first of it kind in a parastatal.
“The Prof Oloyede led administration has completely blocked the corruption in admission by the introduction of an automated admissions platform called CAPS which has removed all human interferences in the conduct of admissions exercise in all tertiary institutions.
“He has constructed mega CBT centres across the country with befitting office accommodation. It is on this note that we are going to write and withdraw all the petitions we have earlier written to the anti-corruption agencies and to equally pass a vote of confidence on the leadership of Prof Ishaq Oloyede.
“And we urge him to continue to sustain the tempo and not give in to the evil machinations of those who are trying hard to distract him from the good work he has been doing,” he said.
