Tinubu’s govt vows to arrest Nigerians with fake school certificates, labels them as criminals

President Bola Tinubu‘s administration has declared Nigerians with fraudulent certificates from foreign institutions as criminals, vowing to eliminate them from the system.

In an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman disclosed this following an investigation by Daily Nigeria revealing the sale of a degree certificate by Benin Republic University to an undercover reporter who never attended the school.

Berating Nigerians using fake certificates from foreign universities, Mamman stated, “students who patronize foreign institutions to procure degrees are not victims. They are criminals. I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested.”

When asked about the government’s actions regarding Nigerians with fake foreign certificates in government institutions, Mamman emphasized that if they can trace people within the system, regardless of when the institution operated, they will be treated as criminals.

He said, “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.”

In response to Daily Nigerian’s investigation, the federal government suspended the accreditation of certificates from two francophone universities.

Mamman added that the investigation would extend beyond Benin and Togo to countries like Uganda, Kenya, and Niger where similar institutions exist.

Mamman said, “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.”

The threat to arrest and flush out Nigerians with fake certificates from foreign universities by Mr Mamman comes despite lingering controversies on President Tinubu’s Chicago State University certificate.