The Federal University of Gusau, Zamfara State, has said the professorship being paraded by the sacked Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Bernard Odoh, was a product of fraud.
Its reaction came against the backdrop of reports that Odoh obtained his professorship from the university.
The university, in a statement, said: “The Federal University Gusau hereby states in clear and unambiguous terms that the so-called letters of tenure as professor and confirmation of promotion to the post of professor, dated 30th April 2015 and 12th November, 2015, being paraded by Dr. Odoh Bernard Ifeanyi and purported to be certified true copies hurriedly endorsed by Ibrahim Bawa Kaura, former Registrar of the Federal University, dated November 8, 2024, six years after the latter left the services of Federal University Gusau, are products of administrative fraud.”
The university alleged that the fraud was orchestrated by Odoh, working in cahoots with the former Vice Chancellor and Registrar, as there is no official record of Dr. Odoh’s employment in the custody of the university.
Further proof of the desperation to perpetrate such illegality, according to the university, is the impersonation and usurpation of the duties of the current Registrar of the university by the former Registrar, Ibrahim Bawa Kaura, who procured a fake stamp to certify Dr. Odoh’s equally fake employment documents as true copies on November 8, 2024, six years after his disengagement from the university.
The university said,”For purposes of emphasis, the requirements for certification of public documents are guided by law. In fact, Section 104 of the Evidence Act 2011 clearly itemizes the essential requirements necessary for a document to be regarded as a certified true copy.
A careful perusal of the above requirements and their juxtaposition against the certification of Dr. Odoh’s documents by Ibrahim Bawa Kaura clearly shows that the so-called certified true copies fell short of the provisions of Section 104 of the Evidence Act, 2011, and are, therefore, not legally tenable.
“It must be stated that having left the services of the university in 2018, Ibrahim Bawa Kaura, the former Registrar of the University of Gusau, has no locus to certify any official document for and on behalf of the university.
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