ABU Whistleblowers Contradict VC, Insist Dino Melaye Did Not Graduate

A combination of Examination of Officers and Librarians at Ahmadu

Bello University on Monday

repudiated claims by the university's Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibrahim

Garba during his appearance before the Nigeria Senate Ethics Committee

that Senator Dino Melaye graduated from the University. Shortly after

the Senate committee ended the carefully choreographed hearing, more

documents from the university, including the Joint Convocation

Brochure, surfaced.



A combination of Examination of Officers

and Librarians at Ahmadu Bello University

on Monday repudiated claims by the

university's Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibrahim

Garba during his appearance before the

Nigeria Senate Ethics Committee that

Senator Dino Melaye graduated from the

University.



Shortly after the Senate committee ended

the carefully choreographed hearing,

more documents from the university,

including the Joint Convocation Brochure,

surfaced.



Saharareporters was first to release Mr.

Melaye's 400 level statement of results

last week, where we revealed that

unscrupulous professors at the Geography

Department manipulated and forged

school records to help Melaye "graduate."

It has now been revealed that despite

efforts by those professors to get away

with the crime of forgery, they were still

stuck during Mr. Melaye's final year,

unable help him graduate because he

could not pass Geography 307 Long Field

Trip, a compulsory course required for

graduation. A copy of the department

handbook made available to

SaharaReporters shows that Geography

307 was a compulsory course that

couldn't have been waived.



What the late Professor D. O. Ogbonna did

was to add 2-course units to Melaye's

Total Earned Course Units without

recourse to the teacher, Dr. A.L. Bello,

who was the supervisor of the course.

SaharaReporters further learnt that after

a major academic scandal broke out in

the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ogbonna

was quietly eased out of ABU, along with

some other professors who had engaged

in grade inflation. The university allowed

Ogbonna to retire and he found another

job in Kogi state University, Melaye's

home state, before he died a few years

ago of an undisclosed illness.



Several lecturers who reached out

Saharareporters after the VC gave his

testimony today said the VC had in the

past week been coming to them to force

the department to endorse Melaye's

graduation, but that they explained to him

that they could not sustain a public

declaration based on their records.



According to the lecturers, the Vice

Chancellor then took the tainted 400 L

third semester results with him to Abuja

before the Senate.



As soon as the VC declared that Mr.

Melaye did graduate, a copy of the Joint

Convocation brochure, with pages related

to the Bachelors of Arts in Geography was

also sent to Saharareporters, with the

Senator's name clearly absent. A source

at the university told SaharaReporters that

there was sufficient time for Mr. Melaye's

name to have appeared in the Brochure

as the excuse of a printer devil or

university crises on campuses could not

explain away the obvious fact, during the

convocation two sets of graduates from

two academic sessions were merged

together. Convocation took place in the

year 2002, two solid years after

Melaye reportedly graduated from ABU,

but his name was absent from the

brochure. His name was also absent from

the Alumni directory of ABU.



Apart from the scandal concerning

whether or not he graduated from ABU,

Mr. Melaye also claimed that he

graduated from Harvard and the London

School of Economics, claims that have now

been debunked by the two renowned

institutions.



A diploma Melaye said he received from

the University of Jos is also suspect as the

Examinations Officers there said they

never prepared transcripts him because

of [his] course deficits.



Mr. Melaye also claims he graduated from

the University of Abuja and has done two

higher degrees at ABU. Those claims fly in

the face of the fraud associated with his

academic background, as Mr. Melaye's

classmates who reached out to

Saharareporters after the scandal broke

said he spent at least 7-8 years studying

at ABU before he left under questionable

circumstances, unable to fulfill his course

work.