– The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) discloses that the federal government is demanding for the academic details of Senator Dino Melaye. A top official of the institution says the issue in contention is whether the lawmaker completed his course of study at ABU. A student union government (SUG) official activist and departmental mate of Senator Melaye, says he and the senator were officials of the national union of geography students at ABU as Dino Melaye has maintained that he graduated from ABU.
The case of alleged certificate forgery against Senator Dino Melaye has assumed a serious dimension as the federal government is set to investigate the allegations against the senator. Senator Melaye’s trouble began on Monday, March 20, 2017, after an online news medium, Sahara Reporters, alleged that the senator did not graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna state for his first degree, against his claim that he studied geography in the prestigious institution.
Though the senator has demised claims that he did not graduate as false, the Ahmadu Bello University is yet to make an official statement on the issue. Now, the federal government has officially demanded that the authority of institution supply the academic details of lawmaker, to clarify the controversy over his completion of his degree programme in geography at the university. According to the Guardian, a top official of ABU, Zaria, who pleaded anonymity, said the government had demanded the immediate release of the academic records of Senator Dino Melaye and that the institution was already compiling the records for release soon. The official noted that nobody is in doubt if Senator Melaye attended the university, but what was in contention was whether the lawmaker completed his course of study. The official said: “The university will make the relevant information available, to the best of my knowledge, the Senator was on this campus and read a course of study for which I think he graduated between 1997 and 1998 as the case may be. “These details can always be found in the list of graduating students of Geography in either of those years as the case may be, but for me, I think he ran a programme and I should think he successfully ended up in either of those years I mentioned.” Similarly, a student union government (SUG) official activist and departmental mate of Senator Melaye, who also pleaded anonymity, said he and the senator were officials of the national union of geography students at ABU. He said: “while Dino was the National President of Geography Department, I was the Assistant Secretary General, I presided over his impeachment during the controversy leading to his ousting from that office. “Let me tell you, Dino was a radical student activist in campus. I will give that to him and at a point he was confrontational to the establishment in the University. And at last, the institution did everything possible to bring him close and later became the eyes of the authority on campus.” According to him: “I can attest that Senator Dino actually completed a course of study in Geography in 1998; whether he had carry-over in some courses that were later waved is what I cannot say.” “I think Dino later graduated from ABU, Zaria with a Third class or Pass. I am sure of that. Let anybody not deceive you that he did not study or graduate in ABU. Go and find out, he did. He is stubborn, that I will give to him. And I think that is what is still trailing him in the Senate,” he said. “The Senator and I were in Geography Department and two of us were also officials of the National Union of Geography Students at ABU.”
Recall that as soon as the news on Melaye’s certificate scandal surfaced, President Muhammadu Buhari expressed concern over the menace of examination malpractices and fake certificates in the country. The president also condemned the spate at which public servants and individuals of questionable wealth were being celebrated with alumni recognitions, honorary degrees, chieftaincy titles and sometimes higher religious titles. Below is a Naij.com video survey of the price of food in the market. Please watch: Buhari noted that cheating in examination and attainment of fake certificates among Nigerians had become a normal thing because of collapse of values in the society
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