Daily Trust reports that the closure of the school created confusion as many people failed to distinguish the school from the Ilorin International Aviation College.

Rector of Ilorin International Aviation College, Capt. Nurudeen Kareem, issued a statement clarifying that the college was not closed, saying “the college is operational and not shut down by any agency whatsoever.”

He added that it was HIK Aviation School, owned by one Mr. Kolwale Idris, that was shut and not International Aviation College.

The statement said International Aviation Training Organization is being regulated by Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

The statement added: “The Kwara State government, through the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, announced the shut down of a quack Aviation School (HIK Aviation School) in Ilorin owned by one Mr. Kolawole Idris.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Kwara State government did not shutdown International Aviation College, Ilorin. The general public should note that the college is running to its full capacity, lectures are going on and our aircraft are flying.” 

The clarification, it was gathered, came on the heels of one report titled: “Kwara shuts Aviation School,” published by a national daily the day after the quack aviation school was shut down.

News of the closure of the illegal aviation school which was being operated under the name of HIK Aviation Consultancy Services Centre, filtered in when the Education Ministry officials, in collaboration with their counterparts in Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, stormed the premises of the centre located at Geri Alimi, along Olorunsogo road, Ilorin, to shut down the school that had 150 students. 

The school, operated by one Mr. Idris Kolawole who claimed to be a Professor, reportedly collected N43, 000 from students, per semester.  

However, in the presence of the ministry officials, the proprietor of the school has failed to produce evidence of his professorship. 

He simply told the task force that he trained in Europe and was also a retiree of the defunct Nigerian Airways.

The closure of the school was informed by the information supplied to the ministry over a fake certificate issued by the school. 

The certificate which was sighted by our correspondent was issued in September, 2013 to one of the victims of the centre (name withheld) with B.ED Aviation Studies boldly written on it and signed by Professor Idris Kolawole as Director-General of the centre.

Incredulously, the centre which is operating in a three-bed room property, is neither accredited by the NCAA which is the regulatory agency for aviation training school; the National Universities Commission (NUC) or the Nigeria Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) nor affiliated to any Aviation Training School while it was running courses ranging from Airport General Studies, Airport Language and Communication and computer training programmes before its closure last week.

 A member of the task force who spoke to Daily Trust on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press said: “Actually, the school has been in existence for a very long time though we could not ascertain the number of fake graduates it has produced. We believe a lot of people would have fallen victims. What I can tell is that the school has produced scores of fake graduates last year as found out in one of the certificates retrieved.”

It was gathered that a committee of the Ministry of Education had recommended the closure of the school long time ago when the ministry got wind of its existence. It was not clear why the closure was delayed till last week.

According to the Director, Quality Assurance Bureau of the ministry who represented the Commissioner, Alhaji Saka Onimago, “the consultant prepared his own scheme of work formulated by the HIK centre.” 

He added: “Those studying in the school have no science orientation as most of them major in Islamic Religious Knowledge, Christian Religious Knowledge, Yoruba language, among other humanities courses.

“The school was, therefore, sealed for failure to comply with guidelines governing the establishment of private schools in the state.”

Asked whether the government would take punitive measures against the owner of the centre, the source said: “What we have done is to warn him not to re-open the school unless he goes through the process of accreditation by the NUC and other regulatory bodies. But if he wants to be cheeky and decides to re-open it, he would be handed over to the security agencies for prosecution.”

It was, however, gathered that students who attended the school were told that it was affiliated to Kwara State University, Malete.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, Alhaji Lamidi Alabi, in an interview with our correspondent warned members of the public to be wary of illegal private educational centres, saying the government’s decision to shut the school was to ensure that the education sector was not bastardised and “we don’t produce fake products.”

Observers opined that the craze for certificates made the youth to fall victims of the illegal aviation training centre which has no record of accreditation or approval by the appropriate regulatory agencies in a sensitive and all-important sector as aviation.