‘Administrative Fraud’ — Federal University Gusau Disowns Odoh’s Professorship

The Federal University of Gusau, Zamfara State, has described the professorship being paraded by the newly appointed Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Aikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Bernard Odoh, as ‘administrative fraud’.

A rejoinder released by the institution claimed that Odoh connived with the former Registrar of the Federal University, Ibrahim Bawa Kaura, to hurriedly produce a letter of ‘confirmation of promotion to the post of professor’.

It reads, “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 3oth 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 fraud was orchestrated by Odoh, working in cahoots with the former Vice Chancellor of the University 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 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 certfiy Dr. Odoh’s equally fake employment documents as true copies on November 8, 2024, six years after his disengagement from the university,” the institution said.

The rejoinder signed by the Registrar and Secretary to Council, Yakubu Anivbassa, noted that the requirements for certification of public documents are guided by law, adding that legal fees must be paid and there must be certification at the footer stating that it is a certified true copy of the original document in question.

“The document must be dated and signed by the officer responsible for issuing it, with his name and title of his office. The document must be sealed,” it noted.

It therefore stated that after careful perusal, the ‘certification’ of Dr. Odoh’s documents by Ibrahim Bawa Kaura were 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,” it said.

Also, the institution’s Vice Chancellor Prof. Mu’azu Abubakar Gusau in a press briefing stated, “The management of the Federal University Gusau hereby declares unequivocally that Dr. Odoh Bernard Ifeanyi is not and has never been a tenure staff of the university, let alone being confirmed as a professor by the institution. Whatever claim to the contrary by Dr. Odoh is nothing but the antics of a drowning man who is a hell-bent on using the good name of the Federal University Gusau, to give vent to his desperate ambition to became the Vice Chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe, through subterfuge.”