The instant previous Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, certainly forged his University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) diploma certificate, an investigative panel arrange by Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has discovered.
The seven-member panel was constituted on 23 November 2025 in response to Mr Nnaji’s petition to the training minister following a painstaking two-year investigation published by PREMIUM TIMES in October final 12 months, which revealed that the then-minister forged his diploma and NYSC certificates.
The panel submitted its detailed report back to the training minister in December 2025.
Nnaji’s petition and structure of the panel
In the petition dated 14 October 2025, Mr Nnaji alleged unethical disclosure, doc tampering, and political manipulation of his tutorial data by senior officers of UNN.
The former minister additionally accused the UNN Vice-Chancellor, Simon Ortuanya, and a former Acting Vice-Chancellor of the establishment, Oguejiofor Ujam, of “issuing forged or unauthorised correspondence, improperly accessing his academic file, and facilitating media publications that misrepresented his academic history.”
The probe panel was led by the Director of the University Education Department within the ministry, Rakiya Gambo Ilyasu, whereas James Ocheido, the deputy director of the division, served as secretary.
Other members of the panel have been: the Director of Polytechnics and Allied Institutions Department within the ministry, Ejeh. A. U; his counterpart within the ministry’s Colleges of Education Department, U. C. Uba; and a consultant of the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Mohammed Ayuba.
The Director of Human Resources Unit of the training ministry, Yusuf Saeed, and his counterpart within the ministry’s Legal Services Unit, Foluso Akinlonu, have been additionally members of the panel.
The panel mentioned it adopted “documentary review, interviews, verification, and technical audit as its methodological approach” to the investigation.
It mentioned in the course of the investigation, members bodily visited UNN, engaged with the establishment’s officers—together with its vice-chancellor and former appearing vice-chancellor—and reviewed vital paperwork and the college data.
The UNN officers interviewed in the course of the investigation have been the college’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ortuanya; a former Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ujam; the Registrar, Celine Nnebedum; Records Unit officers; and different workers members concerned in dealing with tutorial data.
The panel mentioned that in the course of the investigation, it additionally accessed and inspected Mr Nnaji’s tutorial information and inside correspondence – together with the 2023 and 2025 letters issued by UNN.
It added that it examined UNN’s historic tutorial data, registry motion logs, Senate lists, convocation archives, digital entry logs, and different related documentation, together with Mr Nnaji’s transcript request, in addition to verification of the provenance and authenticity of letters issued to media organisations and authorities businesses by the college.
“The members of the panel arrived (UNN) in Nsukka on Sunday, 23rd November 2025. On Monday, 24th November, the panel paid a courtesy visit to the Vice Chancellor, Prof Simon Ortuanya and informed him of the purpose of the visit and proceeded to the venue the university provided for the panel to use,” the report said.
‘Nnaji forged his UNN certificate’
A PREMIUM TIMES investigation had revealed that though Mr Nnaji was admitted to review organic sciences at UNN in the course of the 1981/82 tutorial session, he didn’t graduate and was not issued a certificate after failing one among his programs —Virology (MCB 431AB).
In the federal authorities panel report, completely obtained by PREMIUM TIMES after months of looking for the doc, investigators mentioned they carried out “a thorough review of the Senate-approved graduation list of 1985 and the personal student file” of Mr Nnaji and located, amongst others, that his title was not within the commencement listing within the 1985 set.
The panel mentioned it obtained “several correspondences” dated from 8 November 1985 to 19 May 1986 between Mr Nnaji and the Registry Department of the college concerning his failed course MCB 431 – Virology, which have been documented from pages 69 to 55 of the previous minister’s tutorial file.
It added that Mr Nnaji, in his handwritten correspondence dated 19 May 1986 and titled “Application to take course, 431AB in September,” defined that he couldn’t write the examination scheduled for 21 April 1986 because of in poor health well being, and hooked up a supporting medical report.
“The panel was unable to find any record of him (Nnaji) having taken the failed course,” the report additional learn.
The panel then questioned how Mr Nnaji obtained the “purported certificate of graduation” dated July 1985, which he submitted to President Bola Tinubu for appointment and to the National Assembly for his ministerial affirmation.
The panel’s findings on Mr Nnaji align utterly with this newspaper’s report, which uncovered the then-minister’s prison and unethical certificate forgery.
READ ALSO: Forgery: Lawyer blasts Nigerian govt for failing to prosecute ex-minister Uche Nnaji
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 Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate throughout his ministerial affirmation in 2023.
He claimed he obtained a level certificate from UNN, the place he purportedly graduated in 1985.
Apparently disturbed that he was underneath scrutiny, Mr Nnaji filed a swimsuit on the Federal High Court in Abuja to dam each UNN and its vice-chancellor, Mr Ortuanya, a professor, from releasing his tutorial data.
Apart from the UNN and its vice-chancellor, the minister of training, the NUC, the college’s registrar, a former UNN Acting Vice-Chancellor, Mr Ujam, and the Senate of the college have been listed as defendants within the swimsuit.
But earlier than the minister might acquire an injunction, Mr Ortuanya had responded to PREMIUM TIMES’ FOI letter, confirming that Mr Nnaji had forged his UNN diploma certificate.
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 certificate.
NYSC authorities, in response to a separate FOI letter from PREMIUM TIMES, had disowned the discharge certificate 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 forged his diploma and NYSC certificates.
Many Nigerians had referred to as for Mr Nnaji’s prosecution, sustaining that his resignation was insufficient in gentle of his violations of assorted Nigerian legal guidelines, together with the Criminal Code Act.
Last week, a authorized practitioner, Liborous Oshoma, criticised the Nigerian authorities for failing to prosecute Mr Nnaji, over the certificate forgery scandal, sustaining that individuals like the previous minister “should be prosecuted and banned from holding public office to serve as a deterrent to others.”
Meanwhile, PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported in February that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission 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 forged his credentials.