Ahmadu
Bello University whistleblowers who leaked the news of his alleged
certificate scandal are still insisting that the lawmaker didn't
graduate from the school as his clearance by the VC was manipulated.
Dino Melaye
A combination of Examination Officers and Librarians at Ahmadu
Bello University on Monday repudiated claims by the university's
Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibrahim Garba during his appearance before the
Nigerian Senate Ethics Committee that Senator Dino Melaye graduated from
the University.
Shortly after the Senate committee ended the carefully
choreographed hearing, more documents from the university, including the
Joint Convocation Brochure, surfaced.
Saharareporters was first to release Mr. Melaye's 400 level
statement of results last week, where we revealed that unscrupulous
professors at the Geography Department manipulated and forged school
records to help Melaye "graduate."
It has now been revealed that despite efforts by those professors
to get away with the crime of forgery, they were still stuck during Mr.
Melaye's final year, unable help him graduate because he could not pass
Geography 307 Long Field Trip, a compulsory course required for
graduation. A copy of the department handbook made available to
SaharaReporters shows that Geography 307 was a compulsory course that
couldn't have been waived.
What the late Professor D. O. Ogbonna did was to add 2-course units
to Melaye's Total Earned Course Units without recourse to the teacher,
Dr. A.L. Bello, who was the supervisor of the course.
SaharaReporters further learnt that after a major academic scandal
broke out in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ogbonna was quietly eased
out of ABU, along with some other professors who had engaged in grade
inflation. The university allowed Ogbonna to retire and he found
another job in Kogi state University, Melaye’s home state, before he
died a few years ago of an undisclosed illness.
Several lecturers who reached out Saharareporters after the VC gave
his testimony today said the VC had in the past week been coming to
them to force the department to endorse Melaye's graduation, but that
they explained to him that they could not sustain a public declaration
based on their records. According to the lecturers, the Vice Chancellor
then took the tainted 400 L third semester results with him to Abuja
before the Senate.
As soon as the VC declared that Mr. Melaye did graduate, a copy of
the Joint Convocation brochure, with pages related to the Bachelors of
Arts in Geography was also sent to Saharareporters, with the Senator’s
name clearly absent.
A source at the university told SaharaReporters that there was
sufficient time for Mr. Melaye's name to have appeared in the Brochure
as the excuse of a printer devil or university crises on campuses could
not explain away the obvious fact, during the convocation two sets of
graduates from two academic sessions were merged together. Convocation
took place in the year 2002, two solid years after Melaye reportedly
graduated from ABU, but his name was absent from the brochure. His name
was also absent from the Alumni directory of ABU.
Apart from the scandal concerning whether or not he graduated from
ABU, Mr. Melaye also claimed that he graduated from Harvard and the
London School of Economics, claims that have now been debunked by the
two renowned institutions.
A diploma Melaye said he received from the University of Jos is
also suspect as the Examinations Officers there said they never prepared
transcripts him because of [his] course deficits.
Mr. Melaye also claims he graduated from the University of Abuja
and has done two higher degrees at ABU. Those claims fly in the face of
the fraud associated with his academic background, as Mr. Melaye's
classmates who reached out to Saharareporters after the scandal broke
said he spent at least 7-8 years studying at ABU before he left under
questionable circumstances, unable to fulfill his course work.
See hard documents below:
