Unizik suspends official over certificate forgery

The Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Prof Charles Okechukwu Esimone, has approved the immediate suspension of a staff member, Nwafor Osborne Ogbonnaya (Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor) for six months for allegedly presenting a forged degree result to the university.

The six months suspension is to enable the university authorities carry out further investigations into the forgery allegation.

According to a statement by Special Adviser to the vice chancellor (Public Relations and Special Duties), Dr. Emmanuel C. Ojukwu, on Thursday, the official presented two degree certificates – bearing Nwafor Osborne Ogbonnaya and Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor respectively.

In his bid to secure employment at the university, the official whose real name is Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor reportedly abandoned his undergraduate programme and forged the university’s statement of result and a letter of exclusion from the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC).

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The statement added that the suspect later went ahead to complete his degree programme, noting that the alleged forgery was discovered when he wrote to the university requesting to change his degree result.

The new result he submitted bears Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor and different class of degree which raised suspicion.

“Upon further investigation it was discovered that this staff forged his degree result and letter of exclusion from the NYSC based on the obvious disparity between the documents he submitted originally and the new documents he was trying to substitute.

“The class of degree in both results presented varies. The forged statement of result with the name Nwafor Osborne Ogbonnaya bears second class lower division while the original result with the name Nwafor Ogbonnaya Nwesuzor bears third class.

“In following due process, the vice chancellor in exercising his powers based on the university rules and regulations approved his (the official’s) immediate suspension from the employment of the university for six months while his case undergoes other processes in the university before final action,” it stated.