The police in Enugu State have grilled Chukwunonye Okereke, a media advisor to a former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, for alleged criminal defamation of a former Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Oguejiofo Ujam.
PREMIUM TIMES reliably gathered that Mr Okereke confronted police investigators who interrogated him for hours on Monday for claiming that Mr Ujam, a professor, colluded with the then-PDP-led Enugu State Government to declare that Mr Nnaji cast his UNN diploma certificates.
Mr Okereke was interrogated by police investigators on the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) of the police in Enugu State.
This newspaper learnt that his interrogation was in response to a petition submitted to the police by Mr Ujam.
PREMIUM TIMES obtained a replica of the petition on Monday which was dated 19 May 2026 and acknowledged the next day.
In the petition, addressed to the Commissioner of Police in Enugu State Bitrus Giwa, Mr Ujam alleged that Mr Okereke “criminally defamed” his particular person on 7 October 2025 whereas the media advisor was defending Mr Nnaji’s certificates forgery scandal on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
Defence of Nnaji’s Certificate forgery scandal
Recall that Mr Okereke had appeared on the TV present to defend Mr Nnaji after a painstaking two-year investigation printed by PREMIUM TIMES in October final yr revealed that the then-minister cast his UNN diploma and NYSC certificates which he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate throughout his ministerial affirmation in 2023.
Mr Ujam, who served as UNN’s vice-chancellor from February to August 2025, had left the place on the time of the TV programme.
Simon Ortuanya, a professor, who was appointed in August 2025, has been serving as the establishment’s vice-chancellor.
Defection to APC, PDP
For context, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State was within the PDP on the time underneath which he gained the 18 March 2023 governorship election within the South-eastern state.
Mr Nnaji was a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) underneath which he unsuccessfully contested within the governorship election.
Both Messrs Mbah and Nnaji had been political opponents.
While the governor defected from the PDP to the APC in October 2025, the previous minister not too long ago and “quietly” moved to the PDP faction backed by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
The politician, in May this yr, emerged as the 2027 governorship candidate for the faction of the social gathering.
The alleged defamation on the TV programme
In the TV programme which was monitored by this newspaper, Mr Okereke claimed that Mr Nnaji’s certificates forgery scandal was politically motivated.
He steered that Governor Mbah was accountable for the then-minister’s forgery scandal.
The media advisor particularly stated that UNN was “an arm of the PDP” and that Mr Ujam was the previous chairman of the social gathering in UNN whereas Mr Ortuanya was the present chairman of the “PDP arm” of the establishment.
He steered that each Messrs Ujam and Ortuanya colluded to disown and label the then-minister’s UNN diploma certificates in his possession as cast.
Channels TV printed a video clip of the programme on its verified YouTube channel on 7 October 2027.
In the video clip, Mr Okereke stated, “We have the PDP chapter of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, where the former chairman (of the PDP) was a former Acting Vice-Chancellor (of UNN), Prof Ujam and the present Chairman of the PDP chapter (in UNN) is the politically anointed Vice-Chancellor, Prof Simon Ortuanya.”
The media advisor additional claimed that Mr Ujam served as the “returning officer for PDP” in Nkanu East Local Government Area throughout the 2023 governorship election and that “he was compensated with the acting vice-chancellorship position.”
Meanwhile, checks by PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that political events in Nigeria, together with the PDP, usually are not allowed to have any official designated as “returning officer” in any election within the nation.
It is just the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that often deploys “returning officers” in varied native authorities areas.
The returning officers are additionally known as collation officers.
Political events are solely allowed to have one consultant identified as “party agents” in every of the polling models throughout any election.
Findings by this newspaper additional confirmed {that a} Computer Science lecturer from UNN, Ogbene Nnaemeka, was the returning officer for the Nkanu East Local Government Area on the time of the governorship ballot.
Mr Ujam stated within the petition that he was appointed performing UNN vice-chancellor “on merit” by President Tinubu via the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, and that the subject underneath dialogue at Channels TV’s programme had nothing to do with him, having exited workplace on the time.
“The discourse had nothing to do with me as the erstwhile acting vice-chancellor, but Hon. Chukwunonye Okereke deliberately used the opportunity to drag my name into the discourse just to damage my reputation, impugning my integrity and bringing me into public odium and opprobrium,” he stated.
He burdened that President Tinubu who appointed him as the UNN performing vice-chancellor had been a member of the APC, however Mr Okereke accused him of working as a PDP returning officer throughout the 2023 gubernatorial ballot in Nkanu East LGA.
“Hon. Chukwunonye Okereke knew this truth very properly and the truth that I used to be by no means a returning officer for PDP in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, however he selected to injure my popularity and expose me to public hatred, contempt, ridicule and injury my skilled picture via the media.
“Since the publication of the defamatory statement, I have not had peace of mind as I continue to receive calls from friends and associates who call to either ascertain the veracity of the said publication or express their discomfort over the defamatory statement,” he acknowledged.
The professor appealed to the police commissioner to intervene within the matter and “save me from this malicious embarrassment and also ensure that justice is served accordingly.”
‘It was AI-generated’
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that some police operatives had tried to arrest Mr Okereke in late May, however he pleaded for time to make himself out there for the police interrogation, citing PDP primaries on the time.
The media advisor later arrived on the police SCID workplace on Monday within the firm of his lawyer.
Insiders knowledgeable this newspaper that he denied defaming the previous vice-chancellor.
When he was introduced with the video clip, he claimed that the Channels TV video clip of the programme was generated with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Imminent criminal fees
Sources acquainted with the matter informed PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Okereke could be made to seem earlier than police investigators once more at a later date in what insiders say could be half of closing preparations to cost him in courtroom.
This newspaper understands that the police stay decided to cost the media advisor regardless of his denials.
Police investigators consider that Mr Okereke’s AI-generated declare was an try to divert consideration, contemplating that the Channels TV video clip was irrefutable.
Background
In October 2023, PREMIUM TIMES started investigating Mr Nnaji’s tutorial data.
The then-minister had submitted a level and NYSC certificates to President Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate throughout his ministerial affirmation in 2023.
He claimed he obtained a level certificates from UNN, the place he purportedly graduated in 1985.
Apparently disturbed that he was underneath scrutiny, Mr Nnaji filed a go well with on the Federal High Court in Abuja to dam each UNN and its vice-chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, a professor, from releasing his tutorial data.
Apart from the UNN and its vice-chancellor, the minister of schooling, the National Universities Commission, the college’s registrar, Mr Ujam, and the Senate of the college had been listed as defendants within the go well with.
However, the politician, via his authorized staff, not too long ago utilized for an out-of-court settlement.
Before the then-minister may receive an injunction from the courtroom, Mr Ortuanya had responded to PREMIUM TIMES’ Freedom of Information (FOI) letter, confirming that Mr Nnaji had cast his UNN diploma certificates.
The UNN registrar would shortly thereafter corroborate Mr Ortuanya’s place, indicating that though Mr Nnaji was admitted to the college in 1981, he neither graduated nor was issued any certificates.
NYSC authorities, in response to a separate FOI letter from PREMIUM TIMES, had disowned the discharge certificates in possession of the then-minister.
Mr Nnaji resigned from his place as minister three days after this newspaper printed the investigation exposing how he cast his diploma and NYSC certificates.
Many Nigerians had known as for Mr Nnaji’s prosecution, sustaining that his resignation was insufficient in mild of his violations of varied Nigerian legal guidelines, together with the Criminal Code Act.
Earlier this yr, a authorized practitioner, Liborous Oshoma, criticised the Nigerian authorities for failing to prosecute Mr Nnaji over the certificates forgery scandal, sustaining that folks like the previous minister “should be prosecuted and banned from holding public office to serve as a deterrent to others.”
More so, Mr Nnaji is pushing to be governor in Enugu State in 2027 regardless of being underneath investigation over certificates forgery by the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported in February that the ICPC started an investigation into Mr Nnaji’s forgery scandal.
Insiders had informed this newspaper that the previous minister may very well be prosecuted if the investigation reveals that he really cast his credentials.
Meanwhile, in March, this newspaper additionally exclusively reported that an investigative panel arrange by Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Mr Alausa, discovered that Mr Nnaji certainly cast his diploma and NYSC certificates.