Top Government Official Lands In Hot Soup After Being Exposed For Working With Fake Certificate

 

The Director of Administration in Adamawa State Health Management Board (ASHMB), Halilu Abba, has been taken before the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) allegedly for forging a Master’s degree certificate.

 

According to TheNation, Halilu is alleged to have tendered the document, issued by the Adamawa State University, Mubi, in 2013 to gain promotion into the office of Director of Administration in the Board, following which the ICPC, after a complaint to it, made its investigation and found that the degree was not validly issued to him.

 

Investigations showed that he had actually been a student in the university but did not complete the Master’s programme.

 

A document on the case indicates that he had instead sent a letter, on June 17, 2019, to the institution requesting to complete the programme.

 

The matter was blown open by whistleblowers who, in a letter dated May 28, 2019, alerted the ICPC, which in turn wrote to the university on June 11, 2019, to verify the truth.

 

The management of the university, in a letter signed by its registrar, Yahya J Bobboi, said the candidate who was of the Department of Public Administration of the Postgraduate School of the university, had MPA 7091 (Research Methodology) as outstanding carryover as of July, 2019.

“The statement of result issued on 4th September, 2013 was issued without the candidate completing the MPA programme,” the university said.

 

The ICPC has evidently responded to the reply from the university by demanding the immediate prosecution of Halilu.

 

And the ‘concerned citizens’ who blew the whistle against the embattled officer are said to have told Governor Ahmadu Fintiri through the Head of Service to act appropriately, especially against a history of forgeries in government circles, including a celebrated case, just before the exit of the last administration, of a secondary school leaver who, using someone else’s medical qualification, practiced for years as a doctor under the state government.

 

Halilu Abba could not be reached for comment, as he repeatedly shifted requests for interview.