The Vice-Chancellor, University of Maiduguri, Prof. Aliyu Shugaba has insisted that there is no room for cultism and sex-for-marks in the institution.
Shugaba said this at a forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
The vice-chancellor said that the university was intensifying measures to ensure that cultism and other social vices were checked adequately.
“Our university has all these while maintained a zero tolerance to cultism and exam malpractice and to some other vices.
“We have never had a situation of cultism on the campus, it is always outside the campus very close to the university,’’ he said
While emphasising that the institution had recorded success in addressing the problems of cultism, Shugaba said that the management was, however, determined to discipline those involved in nefarious activities.
“Where we had a similitude of that we have dealt with it.
“The vice-chancellor has that power to suspend students and arraign them before Students Disciplinary Committee.
“That committee has been working. Each time we have cases we refer it to them and they make a good job of it and report to us.
“Those that need to be expelled will be expelled, those that need to be rusticated for one semester or two they will be given the appropriate punishment.
“There was something that happened and it involved one of the military guys on campus, we reported to the military authorities and they took swift action against that officer of theirs.
“That was the only thing that happened on the campus, they were trying to initiate someone and I think the guy has been dismissed from the military; so we do not have much of that problem,’’ Shugaba said.
The vice-chancellor, who decried the rate of exam malpractice in the education system admonished students to refrain from it stressing that appropriate sanctions awaited defaulters.
According to him, one that is so much rampant and it is in most of the universities is the issue of exam malpractice.
“There is no single exam we conduct that we do not have students that do that kind of thing but when we catch them doing it we have ways of making them realise their mistakes.
“We have always counselled them; we have always embarked on campaign using bill boards, orientation programmes and the radio station to tell them about the consequences,’’ he said.
Shugaba added that the institution was collaborating with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to check the menace of drug related vices.
“We bring the NDLEA to the campus to counsel the students on the effects of drugs.
“So, that has brought it to the barest minimum but our greatest headache is the examination malpractice where every semester we have reports.
“We bring the students before the committee, examine and give them chance to defend themselves and those found guilty depending on the level of the offence will either be expelled or suspended for one or two semesters.
“Because we are doing that it is gradually reducing and in the last two semesters there hasn’t been much cases.
“We have had some that were expelled but if you consider the total number of students on the campus the number expelled is negligible.
On the issue of sex for marks, Shugaba said “since we got to know about the happenings in other institutions, we have been working on our own academic staff to ensure that these things don’t happen.
“There are instances where we have invited some that were reported, they have been seriously warned and I can assure you that the situation is now giving way,’’ Shugaba said.