Unizik Sacks Lecturer For Forging His B.Sc Certificate

Dr Peter Ekemezie, a senior lecturer at the department of pure and industrial chemistry, Faculty of Physical Sciences of Nnamdi Azikwe Univeristy, Anambra, has been sacked.

Daily Trust reports that the senior lecturer was sacked by the university’s governing council for the gross misconduct of plagiarism. He was accused to have forged a B.Sc certificate from the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers state.

Ekemezie was found guilty of the act by a committee that was set up by the council to probe the allegation of plagiarism and the claims that he got his B.Sc from the University of Port Harcourt. 

A letter by the council said that the institution’s decision was guided by provision of its constitution to relieve Ekemezie of his duties with immediate effect from Wednesday, June 26. A part of the letter read: "The Governing Council at its 117 general meeting held on Wednesday 26th June, 2019, considered the report of Appeals and Petitions Committee against your person, titled ‘Fraudulent claims of Patent by Dr Peter Ekemezie and other irregularities in the general appraisal.’

“The council noted that the matter which had lingered for more than five years was criminal case pending before court of law. It, therefore, resolved to suspend the deliberation on it. “Guided by the provision of section 13.1.5 of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Senior Staff condition of service, the governing council decided to interdict you from your duties in the University with immediate effect from Wednesday 26th June, 2019 and you are hereby interdicted.”

It should be noted that the case started when one Uche Egolum petitioned the university to recover her money which she paid to the lecturer to help her get a degree at the University of Port Harcourt in 2004.

It was in the process of investigation that the university discovered that the same lecturer also used an alleged forged certificate to get his job at the university.