By Our Reporter
The management of the Federal University, Gusau (FUGUS), Zamfara State, has disowned the sacked Vice-Chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Bernard Odoh.
He was removed as vice-chancellor after his appointment, recruitment processes and academic profile became subjects of controversies.
Odoh had repeatedly claimed that he was appointed as visiting professor at FUGUS in 2014, but was later promoted to the rank of full professor of applied geophysics at the institution in 2015.
After his claims were challenged by the UNIZIK’s chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the sacked vice-chancellor released some documents to prove his professorship.
Among the documents were “certified true copies” of offer of tenure of appointment as professor and confirmation of promotion to the post of a professor.
Others were copies of court affidavits reportedly deposed by two of Mr Odoh’s three assessors who testified that they recommended him to be promoted to the post of a professor.
A copy of another court affidavit deposed by the then registrar of FUGUS, Ibrahim Bawa Kaura, also surfaced online.
Mr Bawa, in the affidavit, testified that he was the registrar when Mr Odoh was made a professor.
However, in a statement on Thursday, Yakubu Anivbassa, FUGUS registrar, said the documents referenced by Odoh were “products of administrative fraud”.
The FUGUS management said Odoh “was never a staff member of the university” and his claims are “tissues of lies and misinformation”.
“The Federal University Gusau hereby states in clear and unambiguous terms that 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 Bernard Odoh are null and void.
“The documents 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.
“Dr Odoh working in cahoots with the former Vice Chancellor of the University and the Registrar, as there is no official record of Dr. Odoh’s employment in the custody of the University.
“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.
“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.
“Whatever claim to the contrary by Dr. Odoh is nothing but 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.”
The registrar said certification of public documents is guided by the Evidence Act 2011, adding that requirements include payment of fees and a certified true copy.