Former students of the Engineering department of National Polytechnic Bamenda, NPB, went on the rampage at the school campus on Friday January 6, disrupting activities and demanding that the school authorities release their attestation certificates.
The graduates of the 2012 batch of NPB stormed the school around 9a.m and took the school hostage threatening that until their attestations were handed over to them, no activity was going to take place in the school that day.
They said their frustration stems from the fact that, they have not been able to get jobs since their graduation because they do not have any documents to proof they graduated from NPB during job interviews.
Explanations from the school authorities didn’t help matters as the striking graduates venged their anger on innocent students; ordering all students out of their classrooms and locking them up.
Level 100 students who had just started their first semester examination found it difficult to believe what was happening. Three of them, all girls, reportedly collapsed and were later revived.
Yuh Michael, who is in charge of Infrastructure and Internal Development at NPB addressed the striking graduates and appealed to protestors to halt their demonstration.
He said their problem will be addressed before explaining that their department is under the University of Dschang and that they were going to get in touch with authorities of the University for their attestations to be made available by February 11.
Though calm was restored to campus after the address, the protesting students promised more action if their problem wasn’t resolved by February 12.
Authorities of NPB will not talk to The Cameroon Journal when we arrived at the school after the pressure had subsided. They said they were putting up a comprehensive report about the incident and can only give out information to the media on February 12.
