The Federal University, Gusau (FUGUS) has officially debunked claims of professorship by Bernard Odoh, the recently dismissed Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), revealing detailed evidence of alleged document forgery and administrative fraud.
FUGUS Registrar, Yakubu Anivbassa, in a statement released on Thursday, categorically dismissed Odoh’s assertions of obtaining professorship at the institution, declaring that all documents presented by the former UNIZIK VC were “products of administrative fraud.”
“The documents are products of administrative fraud orchestrated by Dr. Odoh, working in cahoots with the former vice chancellor of the university and the then registrar (Bawa), as there is no official record of Dr. Odoh’s employment in the custody of the university,” Anivbassa stated.
The controversy stems from Odoh’s claims of being appointed as a visiting professor at FUGUS in 2014 and subsequent promotion to full professor of applied geophysics in 2015.
To support these claims, Odoh had presented several documents, including “certified true copies” of appointment letters and court affidavits from alleged assessors.
However, Anivbassa exposed a significant irregularity in the certification process, pointing out that Ibrahim Bawa Kaura, the former registrar who certified Odoh’s documents, had left FUGUS in 2018.
“Further proof of the desperation to perpetuate 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 certify Dr. Odoh’s equally fake employment documents as true copies on November 8, 2024, six years after his disengagement from the university,” he explained.
The registrar emphasized that document certification must comply with the Evidence Act, 2011, requiring specific elements such as fee payment, proper sealing, dating, and signing by the authorized officer.
“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,” Anivbassa clarified.
Addressing Odoh’s claim of serving as a pioneer head of the Geology department, Anivbassa firmly stated: “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.”
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The FUGUS registrar characterized Odoh’s actions as “the antics of a drowning man who is hell-bent on using the good name of the Federal University Gusau, to give vent to his desperate ambition to become the Vice Chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, through subterfuge.”
