Press Club MAPOLY
The attention of Association of Mass Communication Students at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, has been drawn to a calumny recently published by Platform Times.
Platform Times, an online newspaper, had in the early hours of Friday published a report on its official website, www.platformtimes.com.ng, claiming that the Department of Mass Communication at the Polytechnic was extorting graduating students by charging them #500 for their research project defence.
The online newspaper reported that the Head of the prestigious department, Kolawole Amos, had already raked in #1m as proceeds from extortion of 1, 500 National Diploma II students and 600 Higher National Diploma II students.
Platform Times also reported that Amos headed the department with high-handedness, as he always threatened and insulted students in a bid to instill fear in them.
AMACOS immediate past PRESIDENT Moses Olayinka Ayodele who was also maligned in the news described the report as unfounded, unsubstantiated, disparaging and figment of the imagination of the publisher of Platform Times or sponsors of the report.
Ayodele said, "To set the record straight, there was no time that Amos compelled any graduating student to pay #500 for project defence. Students who paid the money did that on compassionate ground to provide entertainment for academic staff who were owed salaries. We provided refreshments for them during the defence which has been on for two weeks now.
"The report is also far from truth because ND II students have never defended their elongated essays in the history of the leading Polytechnic. How do you ask ND students to defend project? Do they write project? No."
The student leader said in a statement that no staffer of the department collected the money, stating that it was AMACOS that designated a graduating student to collect the money from "good Samaritans".
According to him, the number of the students was rather too bogus to be believed. "How is it possible for a department to have 1, 500 ND II students? Where are the facilities? The report is too inconceivable."
The students association went on to refute another claim by the newsppaer that the frontline department of journalism and the Polytechnic as whole had become major opposition of Ogun State Government, saying the staff were core professional, non-partisan and and responsible individuals of unquestionable character.
"Based on the manufactured lies by Platform Times, AMACOS has deemed it expedient to urge members of the public, Ogun State Government, MAPOLY authorities and students to disregard the empty allegations, " the statement said.
The statement described the report as a calculated but failed attempt to drag the good image of the prestigious department in a stinking mud.
