Delta Education Commissioner Denies Extortion Allegations

By Jude Bruno

Delta State Commissioner for Secondary Education, Mrs. Rose Ezewu, has described as baseless the allegations compelling school principals, CIEs to purchase portraits of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and herself.

Mrs Ezewu who was reacting to news making round on various media platforms, said the publication alleging that the Education Monitoring Taskforce earlier constituted by the Commissioner with Tony Edah as its Coordinator in Delta central senatorial district had been involved in forceful extortion of funds from Chief Inspectors of Education and principals.

In a swift rebuttal, Ezewu said it was the handiwork of detractors in the education sector who were jittery for reasons best known to them.

She clarified that the assertions were in its entirety a total falsehood, defamatory and outright expression of the figment of the detractors’ imaginations through their contracted author(s).

ALSO READ: Girl-Child Day: Rights Activist Faults None Toilet Facilities In Nigeria Schools

The Commissioner while stating that she was deeply committed to ensuring that secondary school administrators operate within the ambit of their vested responsibilities, said she never commissioned anyone to carry out such actions for any reason.

In her words, “I will continue to maintain my position on instilling discipline and transparency in the secondary school department of the education sector as a Commissioner.

“I have never been engaged in any form of financial indecency, neither have i ever forced individuals to act against their will,”

Furthermore, Mrs Ezewu categorically stated that it is on record that every activities of the Ministry of Secondary Education has the contribution of all management staff.

“As the Commissioner for a Ministry that parades experienced staff, I value the skillful input of all cadre of staff in the ministry, and in tandem, we have always put our views together to ensure that when implemented, we get the anticipated good results for the state, our students and educational institutions.

“I could not have been reprimanding principals fingered in illegal collection of exorbitant fees and on the other hand as claimed by the author of the publication, instructed anyone to communicate  principals and CIEs in the state to demand financial gratification,”

She emphatically stated that the allegations were a futile effort to whittle her drive to bring sanity to secondary schools in the state.

She called on journalists to be guided by the ethics of their profession which requires them to indulge in proper fact-based journalism which creates an opportunity for them to balance their reports.