IPNews-Monrovia, Liberia-12 March 2018: Students of the Accelerated Vocational Training Program (AVTP) have accused the Assistant Minister for Vocational and Technical Education at the Ministry of Education of corruption, nepotism and educational malpractices.
The disenchanted students accused Sekou Dukuly of doing more harm to them than good as this is unprecedented for such a high profile individual he claimed to be.
In an interview with this paper by protesting students at the Education Ministry in Monrovia, the student president said corruption is among other issues that are affecting them at the said institution.
Konneh Ezekiel said since Minister Dukuly assumed office nearly a month now he has continued inflating more harm to them as was done in previous governments.
The disenchanted students further accused the minister of unilaterally appointing his son to the position of a registrar thus creating more rooms to carry on fake deals between him and his son.
The student group president further alleged that Minister Dukuly in previous had fixed several fake documents, setting examples on the ghost account numbers opened in the name of the institution at Eco Bank with foreign exchange and local currency account numbers of 0053174704653802 and 0053174704653801 respectively.
According to documents in the possession of this paper, Minister Dukuly made a deposit at the Eco Bank only for authorities at the institution to realize that the account was completely blank, a situation that prompted the students to demand explanation.
The student leader pointed out that the student council body has applied much effort to get the minister respond on the issue but to no avail.
Ezekiel also claimed that the minister continues to say that students of AVTP are asking him to explain himself through a legal order or he should step down from the position.
“To our disbelief, we were thrown out of class for school fees and other charges after his son had earlier received our tuition and other fees which were receipted for,” he lamented.
The aggrieved students used the occasion to call the attention of authorities at the Education Ministry to properly address the matter, or they will keep on their protest until it claims the attention of President George Manneh Weah.
Authorities at the Ministry of Education refused to allow our reporter to access the office of the Deputy Minister. The director of public affairs Maxim Bleetan`s contact number was perpetually switched off. The security at the main gate said both the minister and Maxim Bleetan were not in their offices.
Meanwhile, Minister Saku Dukuly has since denied all claims on the matter, saying that the communication department has all the details on the matter.
When contacted, the Assistant Director of Communications, Shannoh Goe told this newspaper that they can’t say anything for now, disclosing that the issue is under investigation by the ministry`s legal team. More detail follows in our subsequent edition.
