UNICAL threatens to publish names of 42,000 graduands yet to collect their certificates since 1980s

A three-month ultimatum has been issued to graduands of The University of Calabar (UNICAL)  who are yet to collect original copies of their certificates.

The Registrar of the University, Mr. Gabriel Egbe in an official memo dated June 25, said that there were over 42,000 unclaimed certificates in the various faculties and institutes.

Egbe said that some of the certificates date back to the 1980s while urging the owners to approach the institution to get them.

“It has been discovered that there are over 42,000 unclaimed certificates of the University of Calabar in faculties and institutes. Some of these certificates date back to the 1980s,” the memo read.

“The University management is shocked by this abnormality, and therefore, directs that all those who have not collected their certificates after several years of graduation should do so immediately. Persons who are acquainted with this group of graduands should please, inform them to come for collection.”

Egbe also threatened to publish names and subsequently surcharge those who do not comply with the directive by the end of September.

“Those who do not do so before the end of three months from the date of this notice, will have their names published and will be surcharged subsequently,” he added.

The University Registrar in a separate interaction on Wednesday, June 30, said “what they are trying to do now is to ensure that we make the process of getting certificates seamless so that we do not have a situation where certificates are piled up again,”

Asked to give statistics of the various certificates and grades, Egbe said he was not with the statistics because the various faculties have been asked to collate and categorize the various certificates and report to management.

“I cannot give you the exact statistics now because we have asked the various faculties to compute the categories of certificates and get back to us. What we know is that these certificates have been there for so long and we have advised those who have them to come for collection.

“We have made contacts with some of them and we have told them that it is free. They are not paying anything for the collection. We just want to clear the backlog of these certificates and ensure that we move on from there,” he said.