The Federal Government of Nigeria said Wednesday it will extend the suspension of accreditation and evaluation of degree certificates to include those from Kenya, the Niger Republic, and Uganda.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television, Nigeria’s Education Minister, Tahir Mamman, said the security agents would go after those with fake certificates from foreign countries already using them to secure jobs in Nigeria.
“We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo. We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, and even Niger here where such institutions have been set up,” he said.
This came 24 hours after they suspended degree certificates from universities in Benin Republic and Togo after a report detailed how a degree was acquired within two months from a university in Benin Republic.
Mamman described students who came from such institutions as criminals.
“I have no sympathy for people patronising the institutions. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested,” he added.
Apart from suspending the accreditation of certificates from the two francophone West African nations, the government also launched an investigation into it with the minister saying its report should be submitted in three months.
The minister said certificate forgery is a global problem and not only a Nigerian one, adding that the ministry is aware of the problem.
A report published in The Daily Nigerian exposed a certificate racketeering syndicate in neighbouring countries like Benin Republic and Togo, that specialises in selling university degrees to willing buyers in Nigeria.
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