The Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dr Tamunosisi Gogo-Jaja has warned fake enforcement agents who go about claiming that the ministry sent them to collect levies from school owners in the state, to desist forthwith or be prepared to face the full weight of the law in accordance with their actions.
Gogo-Jaja also said that the Ministry of Education has not authorised any person or group of persons in the name of taskforce or enforcement team to harass any school owner across the state for the purpose of collecting any levy or fees for the ministry.
He made this clarification while speaking with journalists in his office in Port Harcourt, recently, to address the complaints of harrassement of some school owners in the state from fake taskforce and enforcement team allegedly dispatched by the state Ministry of Education for collection of levies and monies in the state.
The commissioner stated that it was not true that the ministry has sent any group as enforcement team or taskforce to harass school owners in the state and advised those indulging in the act to stop forthwith before the hands of the law caught them up.
“ I want to use this medium to inform the members of the public that we have not sent any enforcement team into the field at the moment. We are using this first quarter to process and add some security measures into the certificate approval for schools in the state. Our approval shall no longer be in letter headed again. This is what we are working for now and had not sent anybody as taskforce”, he added.
The State Commissioner for Education further used the opportunity to call on the local government authorities to desist from the habit of making frivolous demands from school owners in their various local government areas, adding that it was the sole responsibility of the state governor to grant approval for any school registrations in the state.