The Federal University Gusau in Zamfara State has distanced itself from the dismissed Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, UNIZIK, Awka, Anambra State, Bernard Ifeanyi Odoh, asserting that he has never served as a professor at their institution.
During a press conference on Thursday evening in Gusau, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Muazu Abubakar, stated that Dr. Odoh was neither employed by the university nor appointed as a professor.
He further claimed that the letters purporting to offer Dr. Odoh a tenure as a professor and confirming his promotion, dated April 30, 2015, and November 12, 2015, were fraudulent.
Professor Abubakar explained that these documents, which were presented by Dr. Odoh, were hastily endorsed by the former registrar of the university, Ibrahim Bawa Kaura, on November 8, 2024, six years after Dr. Odoh had left the university.
He accused Dr. Odoh of orchestrating this administrative fraud in collaboration with the former Vice Chancellor and the registrar.
“In the case of Dr. Odoh Bernard Ifeanyi, the university notes as follows: That he did not submit any letter of acceptance of offer of appointment, that he did not undergo the statutory documentation, that even though Dr Odoh was engaged as a visiting linkage staff in the Department of Geology of the University and dubiously enrolled into the institution’s payroll from July 2014 to August 2015, he neither assumed duty nor taught any course since the inception of the department in the 2014/2015 academic session.”
“The so-called letters of offer of tenure of appointment 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 solid years after the latter left the services of the Federal University Gusau, are products of administrative fraud orchestrated by Dr. Odoh, working in cahoots with the former Vice Chancellor of the University and the Registrar.”
Professor Abubakar emphasized that all claims regarding Dr. Odoh’s appointment and promotion were fraudulent, lacking due process, and indicative of illegality.
He stressed that there is no evidence of official documentation with regards to his controversial employment as a staff of the Federal University Gusau.
“The whole charade was packaged and executed by the former vice chancellor and the former registrar, without recourse to extant rules and due process for reasons not known to law and common sense.”
“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 documents as true copies on November 8, 2024, six years after his disengagement from the university.”
“The management of the Federal University Gusau wishes to state in unequivocal terms that from available records, Dr. Odoh Bernard Ifeanyi is not and has never been a tenured staff member of the university, let alone being confirmed as a professor by the institution,” Professor Abubakar concluded.
Newsmen reports that President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday dissolved the Governing Council of the University and sacked Prof. Bernard Ifeanyi Odoh, the new Vice Chancellor, and Mrs. Rosemary Ifoema Nwokike, the registrar.
https://www.thecable.ng/sacked-unizik-vcs-professorship-fraudulently-obtained-says-zamfara-varsity/
The government therefore reinstated Professor Joseph Ikechebelu as the new acting vice-chancellor and reappointed Victor Modebelu as the acting register of the university.