How Oloyede waged successful war against exam malpractices – Echono

Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) , Arc Sonny Echono on Monday, revealed how the immediate past Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Emeritus Ish’ aq Oloyede , waged a successful war against exam malpractices in Nigeria while in the sadle.

Echono spoke at the homecoming celebration for Professor Oloyede and investiture ceremony of Awards of Excellence to four Distinguished Nigerians, Distinguished Alumni and UNILORIN Ambassadors, organised by the University of Ilorin.

Echono recalled how he was recruited by Oloyede to join in waging the war against corruption, saying: “I recall Professor Oloyede waged a successful war against exam malpractice  in this country.

“I didn’t understand the importance of that war, because they have turned it to big businesses that were all over the country, until I got involved and he put me into that fight. But I didn’t know that it was actually a multi-billion business. And every day, phone calls, you are coming with threats.

“They have constituted themselves into a cartel, yet with courage and working with the security agencies. In fact, there was a point we took a room in Sheraton Hotel. It was our mobile court.

“More than 60-something children were arrested from various parts of the country, for exam malpractices and we were interested not just in the fact that they had committed crimes, we wanted to know who were behind them. And through that exercise, for several days, we were held up in that hotel, we interviewed them, we had arrested and detained them in one location, and the security people were bringing them one by one.

“At the end of the day, we were able to extract so much information that helped to clean out that mess from us.

“He’s a man that has also demonstrated compassion. The staff in JAMB will tell you the nature of the man, but even in the course of his work, when you talk about inclusive education today, the chief apostle of inclusive education is Professor Is- haq Oloyede, he said.”

Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Wahab Egbewole, announced that the university will institute  N250million professorial chair in honour of the former JAMB registrar.

Named “Is- haq Oloyede Professorial Chair of Islamics”, Egbewole said the award was in recognition of the honurees’  selfless services and contributions to the society.