Thursday

Minister's "fraudulent" profile pulled down from Aviation Ministry's website even as Perm. Sec. in same ministry may have spurious credentials

Stella Oduah
By Deji Komolafe

Embattled Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah has had her credentials "dressed down" within her profile on the website of the Nigerian Aviation Ministry. This would seem to lay credence to the ongoing allegations against her that she lied in her "assets declaration" (a violation of the Code of Conduct for public officers in the Nigerian Constitution) as it relates to her academic qualifications.

A visit to the site now reads "Oduah-Ogiemwonyi received her Bachelors and Masters Degree (in Accounting and Business Administration respectively) in the United States" without specifying exactly where she may have obtained those degrees from (see image below).

Stella Oduah's new bio without a university

Also, Mrs. Oduah's Wikipedia page has also been altered to reflect the same descriptive tenor as her profile on the Aviation Ministry's website. 

CC has further gathered that the Permanent Secretary in the same Aviation Ministry, 'Dr.' George Afamefuna Ossi, FCAI may also be carrying a rather spurious Honorary Doctorate Degree in Public Administration (DPA) from the Commonwealth University of Business Arts and Technology (aka Commonwealth University), Belize, an unaccredited University run by a certain David Iornem, who was recently charged under the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

The said David Iornem (with his litany of fake diplomas) is said to have collected the sum of $17,300 from three Nigerians to secure their admission to the unaccredited degree mill in a highly corrupt Island nation.


The said "University" purports to have "accreditation" with the International Association of Distance Learning (IADL), which in-turn states in its disclaimer that "the International Association for Distance Learning and its officers and staff accept no responsibility or legal liability, expressly or implicitly, for the business operations and practices or conduct of any IADL Member."

The interesting aspect of this so-called "accreditation" is that it flies in the face of the standard practice where Universities or Institutions of Higher Learning are accredited by a regional or national association, or both. 

Dr. Ossi seems to fit right in with the "usual suspects" of run-of-the-mill diploma and honorary degree holders swarming around this current administration like flies in a meat market.

That President Goodluck Jonathan surrounds himself (as it seems) with characters such as these, is serious cause for concern and as investigations continue into the activities of this current administration, one can only imagine that we have only just seen the proverbial tip of the iceberg.