Embattled minister’s aide makes false bribery claim against PREMIUM TIMES
Robert Ngwu, the spokesperson of the embattled Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, has falsely accused PREMIUM TIMES of receiving N100 million in bribes from the Enugu State Government to publish the newspaper’s recent investigation exposing how the minister forged his degree and NYSC certificates.
Mr Ngwu made the allegation on Tuesday when he appeared as a guest on The Morning Brief, a Channels TV programme.
The Investigation
A two-year investigation published by PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday revealed that Mr Nnaji forged the credentials he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation in 2023.
Allegations of certificate forgery have dogged Mr Nnaji since July 2023, when President Tinubu named him among the first batch of 28 ministerial nominees from 25 states forwarded to the Senate as part of the president’s initial cabinet list, two months after taking office on 29 May 2023.
Critics have long insisted that Mr Nnaji did not complete his university education and that both the bachelor’s degree and NYSC certificate he presented to President Tinubu, and the offices of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the State Security Service, and the Senate, were forged.
The findings of PREMIUM TIMES’ extensive examination of the documents were damning and conclusive: both the degree certificate and the NYSC discharge certificate in the minister’s possession are outright forgeries.
This newspaper reported on Sunday how the minister admitted that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) never issued him a degree certificate.
Many Nigerians have expressed outrage over the minister’s certificate forgery scandal.
On Monday, Mr Nnaji was absent from a press conference his office called to address the matter. His aides, however, appeared on his behalf and made unsubstantiated claims, including the claim that the minister graduated from UNN.
PREMIUM TIMES later published documents showing that at the time Mr Nnaji claimed to have graduated from UNN and purportedly proceeded to participate in the mandatory NYSC programme, he was still exchanging letters with the institution on how he could re-sit an examination for a terminal course he failed.
Unsubstantiated claims
On the TV programme, Mr Ngwu, a lawyer, claimed that the Enugu State Government paid PREMIUM TIMES N100 million to do the report.
“PREMIUM TIMES was allegedly paid N100 million to start this process,” the spokesperson claimed, referring to the investigative report.
“By who?” Kayode Okikiolu, one of the programme anchors, asked the spokesperson.
“This is a big allegation, Mr Ngwu. Who paid and do you have proof?” the anchor asked again.
Mr Ngwu tried to evade the question by stressing “allegedly paid,” before promising to speak on that later.
When pressed, he claimed: They (PREMIUM TIMES) were allegedly paid by the state government of Enugu State. That’s the person behind the mask.”
Mr Okikiolu, for the umpteenth time, asked Mr Ngwu to show proof of his allegation but the aide claimed the proof would be given later and then asked the Enugu State Government to defend itself.
Another anchor, Bukola Coker, further pressed the minister’s aide to give proof of his allegations.
“It was people who (gave) verbal confirmation (of the allegation). We can find out,” Mr Ngwu responded. “We have our sources.”
Meanwhile, the Enugu State Government has since denied the allegations that the government was involved in the investigation uncovering Mr Nnaji’s certificate forgery.
Chukwuemeka Nebo, the director of information in the State Ministry of Information and Communication, stated this in a statement on Monday.
“The Enugu State Government dissociates itself completely from these allegations. The Honourable Minister must carry his own cross and clear his name before Nigerians, instead of dragging the government into issues that are entirely personal to him,” Mr Nebo said in the statement.
‘We need to speak with the minister himself’
On the TV programme, Mr Ngwu continued to make unsubstantiated claims while evading key questions raised from the published investigative story.
The aide claimed Mr Nnaji only requested his transcript in May this year after he got information that the university authorities were tampering with the minister’s academic records in collusion with the Enugu State Government.
“Transcript is a superior document that shows somebody’s academic record,” he claimed.
But Mr Okikiolu countered the minister’s aide.
“I find it curious that you say that a transcript is superior to a certificate when it’s proven that a certificate is indeed the proof that you have completed your course,” the anchor countered.
He then went on to ask Mr Ngwu to confirm the certificate the minister submitted to the Senate for his ministerial confirmation, given that he claimed in a court filing that he had not collected his certificate from UNN.
Mr Ikikiolu also asked the aide to respond to the correspondence published by PREMIUM TIMES, indicating that the UNN had informed the minister that he had failed to pass his course and needed to retake it.
“You asked a very valid question, which is why the honourable minister is asking for his transcript,” Mr Ngwu said, without addressing the questions.
Apparently unsatisfied with his responses, the anchor then asked to interview the minister himself.
“Yesterday, the minister didn’t show up. In cases like this, you expect that he shows up and says, ‘You know, this is the situation because I serve Nigerians.’
“So it would be great to have a conversation with the minister. Let’s walk through it together,” the anchor suggested.
More evasion of questions
Mr Okikiolu also asked Mr Ngwu to respond to growing calls for Mr Nnaji to resign in the light of the investigations, but the aide failed to address the question.
On her part, Mrs Coker asked Mr Ngwu to confirm if the minister indeed admitted in a court filing that he has not gotten his certificate from UNN.
“Anything that comes from Premium Times, to me, has no credibility,” he claimed, evading the question.
When pressed further, he said: “He never admitted that (UNN did not give him his certificate). What he said is that he has never received his transcript. He received his certificate. But it is not his job to validate the certificate. It is the school’s responsibility.”
“Well, your answer is neither here nor there. We might have to hear from the minister himself in order to verify whether, indeed, he received his certificate from the university or not,” Mrs Coker remarked.
The anchor further asked the aide to respond to the response from the NYSC authorities to PREMIUM TIMES, in which they disowned the NYSC discharge certificate in the minister’s possession.
“That’s false,” he said. “NYSC never did that. Let them (PREMIUM TIMES) show you what the NYSC sent them.”
PREMIUM TIMES reacts
Reacting, the Managing Editor of PREMIUM TIMES, Idris Akinbajo, denied the allegation that this newspaper collected N100 million bribe from the Enugu State Government.
“It’s totally false,” Mr Akinbajo said of the allegation. “If the minister or his aides have any evidence of such a bribe, we urge them to make it available to the public.”
“Our commitment is to ethical, investigative journalism and holding power accountable. We have done so consistently for 14 years as a newspaper and will continue to do so.
“Mr Ngwu should be ready to meet us in court, where he will have further opportunities to prove his allegations against us. We are not a newspaper he can so baselessly malign.”