EXCLUSIVE: Indicted for fraud, Nigerian university lecturer now being considered for institution’s top job

After failing to punish him for graduating a student who didn’t meet the necessary requirements for graduation, the Federal University Gusau (FUGUS), Zamfara State, is now considering Aliyu Moyi for one of the university’s top positions.

Four years ago, Mr Moyi was indicted for “falsification of records and insubordination” in a matter revealing how he wrongly approved for graduation a student who didn’t meet the requirements for graduation. He was, however, never punished.

He has now been nominated alongside another university staffer, Sanusi Bello, for the position of the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics at the university.

The vice-chancellor, Muazu Abubakar, a professor, also nominated Bello Muhammad and Lawal Sa’ad for the position of Deputy Vice Chancellor, Administration. the university’s governing council, led by Aminu Isa, will be meeting on Monday to select two of the four nominees for the appointments.

If Mr Moyi’s nomination is approved by the university’s governing council, university insiders say it would set a negative precedent in the young university.

One official expressed worry that the university would again be in the news for the wrong reasons. The former vice-chancellor whose administration failed to punish Mr Moyi, Magaji Garba, a professor, had also been jailed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2022 for extorting a contractor.

Infractions
At the end of the 2018/2019 academic session, whispers among students reached the ears of some lecturers at the university’s Department of Mathematical Science.

Students who either failed or didn’t take some compulsory courses approached some lecturers, asking to have their failed courses waived to allow them to graduate without a ‘spillover’ session. They said one of their colleagues, Agnes Livingstone, had a compulsory course waived and already had her name on the graduating list. The lecturers dismissed them, saying it was not possible.

But the whispers grew louder after Ms Livingstone’s name was included in the order of proceedings for the university’s maiden convocation for the first and second set of graduates. It was not hard to spot Ms Livingstone’s name in the convocation list of the event held on 25 January 2020 as the department only graduated 11 students for the 2018/2019 session.

Days later on 29 January, a formal complaint was filed at the university’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU). The complaint was simple and straightforward; Livingstone Agnes did not register or pass MTH 400, a compulsory course. Yet, she graduated.

ACTU is a unit established by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the government. The unit has the power to conduct preliminary investigations on corruption in respective MDAs. It operates as autonomous outfits with functional linkages with the office of the head of the agencies, in this case, the office of the vice-chancellor. It also submits the report of its findings to the ICPC which has powers to prosecute.

ACTU-FUGUS began investigating the matter shortly after, PREMIUM TIMES can now report after reviewing documents and interviewing several members of the university.

This newspaper also obtained a copy of the ACTU investigative report, testimonies of persons involved and letters exchanged between university officials on the matter, all of which were submitted to the then Vice-Chancellor, Mr Garba, and the ICPC.

Investigations
When ACTU-FUGUS began investigating the matter, it dispatched letters to the then head of mathematical science department, Mr Moyi; the examination officer; the coordinator, central examination result processing, Muhammad Jabaka; and the academic secretary, Bashir Magaji.

In the letters, it asked them to provide the approved list of graduating students from the mathematical science department for the 2018/2019 session; to enable ACTU to determine where and how the student’s name was included in the graduating list.

Two of them responded with the list of the same 11 students as contained in the convocation order of proceedings. However, the head of the department and the departmental examinations officer did not respond to the request and follow-up letters sent to them, according to ACTU’s final report.

During a questioning session with ACTU, the student- Ms Livingstone, confirmed she never registered for the course, MTH 400, as she had exhausted the 48 course units limit during her course registration for the session. “The reason is because there was no space for me to put it,” she wrote in the investigation form, a copy of which this newspaper also obtained. “But I plan to register it in the new session.”

Throughout ACTU’s investigation, Mr Moyi and the examinations officer never responded to the letters requesting comments.

ACTU noted in its report that their action constitutes “insubordination,” which amounts to misconduct according to the regulations governing the terms and conditions of service of staff.

‘Not an oversight’
The ACTU investigation found that Mr Moyi, who vetted the results, graduated the student unfairly, noting that the infraction “cannot be considered an oversight.”

The report noted that Mr Moyi, as the head of the department, usurped the examination officers’ power to vet the results in which Ms Livingstone was approved. The report also stated that Mr Moyi, a second-time head of the department, is “fully aware” of the importance and seriousness of examination results handling.

“No justification has been established as to why the Head of Department vetted and approved the student for graduation instead of the examinations officer,” the ACTU report noted.

“The list forwarded to the mathematical science department by the ICT consisted of only 11 students. Thus, the vetting cannot in any way be considered heavy enough to allow room for wrongly graduating a student without requirements,” the report added.

The report also concluded that Mr Moyi’s actions constituted falsification of records, insubordination and actions inimical to the university’s image which are punishable by “reduction in rank, termination of appointment or dismissal from service.”

The report also stated that Ms Livingstone was wrongly graduated with a second-class lower division in the 2018/2019 session and wrongly mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Batch A in 2020.

“As alleged by the complainants, the student (i.e Livingstone Agnes) confessed that she is not eligible to graduate during the 2018/2019 academic session. This is because she didn’t register and pass a compulsory course (MTH 400, Seminar),” it added. ACTU gave two recommendations in its final report. One, that the student be made to register and pass the compulsory course before she would be graduate.  she did so in the next session and has successfully graduated.

The final recommendation was punishment for officials involved by “reduction in rank, termination of appointment or dismissal from service”, the report stated, citing sections 121, 123 and 124 of the regulations governing the terms and conditions of service of staff.

This recommendation has so far been ignored, according to individuals familiar with the matter. “He was never punished,” one official said, asking not to be quoted, for fear of retribution.

Mr Akor said he would get the information from the registry and furnish our reporter with the details. But he didn’t for two weeks as of the time of this report. In his last message to our reporter on Wednesday, he said he has yet to get the details and would revert as soon as he gets it.