ICPC storms Benue, arrests proprietor, registrar of fake university

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The Proprietor and Registrar of Lobi Institute of Management and Technology, Markurdi, Benue state were on Tuesday arrested by men of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission,ICPC, for allegedly awarding fake degree certificates to people.

The anti-graft team gathered that the school was affiliated to a foreign university called Irish University Business School in London.

A statement from the Commission’s resident consultant (media), Folu Olamiti, said the proprietor of the institution, Dr Peter Ahemba, and the registrar, Chihi Joseph, were later quizzed by operatives with relevant materials retrieved from them that would help in their investigation.

Ahemba however denied ever been affiliated to any foreign university but said that the school only awards certificate to its students.

Speaking with newsmen in Makurdi, ICPC Deputy Director, education department, Mr Muhammed Ashiru Baba, said that the Commission was working in line with section 6 of the ICPC Act.

He lamented the increasing rate of fake universities in the country, stating that four of such illegal universities were in Benue State axis and assured of the Commission’s effort to rid the country of illegal universities so as to save education from total collapse.

The team which also visited the North-Central University in Otukpo discovered that the proprietors of the university had closed the institution about five years ago. Before closure, the institution operated in a private secondary school called Ujor Memorial College in Otukpo with dilapidated buildings, while reports indicated that no fewer than 5,000 students were attending the school, most of them from the eastern part of the country.

This article originally appeared on dailypost