Nigerians with fake foreign school certificates will be punished - Minister vows

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman has vowed to go after Nigerians with fake school certificates from foreign countries.

He said during an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, January 3, 2024.

Mamman described persons in possession of fake certificate as a criminal and not a victim.

He said;

“I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” the minister said sternly. If along the line, we can trace that there are people already in the system. For instance, if a particular institution or operator has been operating, say in the last 10 years, we will check if we can get records of Nigerians who attended that institution.

Once we do that, they are criminals and you know there is no timeframe to criminality. We will trace them. As long as we can lay our hands on their institutions and they are right here with us, certainly, the security agencies will go after them because they are criminals.”

When asked what he would do to Nigerians with fake foreign certificates already within the system.

In response he noted that the Federal Government would suspend degree certificates from more countries like Uganda, Kenya and the Niger Republic.

“We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo. We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up.”

This action comes after an undercover journalist revealed how he acquired a degree from a university in Benin Republic under 6 weeks and got deployed for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

The Federal Government has since the expose suspended accreditation of certificates from the two francophone West African nations and launched a probe into the matter.