Court Rejects Nnaji’s Bid To Stop UNN From Releasing Academic Records
A suit seeking to stop the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, from releasing the academic records of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji has been dimissed.
The suit was dismissed by a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Justice Hausa Yilwa, in a ruling delivered on September 22, declined to grant an injunction restraining the university from releasing the minister’s records, according to a Certified True Copy of the judgment sighted by Punch on Sunday.
Nnaji, through an ex parte motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1909/2025, had asked the court to bar the university from tampering with his records while compelling it to release his academic transcript.
Justice Yilwa, after reviewing submissions from Nnaji’s counsel, held that while the minister had an interest in the matter, his request for an injunction lacked merit.
“I find that the applicant has sufficient interest in the matter, and the application is partly meritorious. Accordingly, prayers 1, 2 and 3 are granted, while prayer 4, which sought an injunction, is declined,” the judge ruled.
He further clarified, “Prayer 4 is declined. Having being refused, the granting of reliefs 1-3 shall not serve as injunctive reliefs against any of the parties. That’s the order of the court.”
In a separate letter dated October 2, 2025, the Vice-Chancellor of UNN, Prof. Simon Ortuanya, told a media organisation that the university did not issue Nnaji a certificate, as there were no records showing he completed his studies.
“From our records, we cannot confirm that Mr Geoffrey Uchechukwu Nnaji, the current Minister of Science and Technology, graduated from the University of Nigeria in July 1985. There are no records showing that he completed his studies,” the letter stated.
The university maintained that since Nnaji did not complete his programme, it could not have issued him a certificate. It added that the same position was communicated to the Public Complaints Commission in May 2025.
In court documents, however, Nnaji admitted that he had not collected his degree certificate, contrary to the one he reportedly presented to the Senate during his ministerial screening in August 2023.
“Even though I am yet to collect my certificate from UNN due to the non-cooperative attitude of the university authorities, the institution had issued a letter dated December 21, 2023, to an online news platform confirming that I graduated in July 1985 with a Second Class (Lower Division) in Microbiology/Biochemistry,” he said in his filing.
The minister dragged several parties to court, including the Minister of Education, the National Universities Commission, UNN, its Vice-Chancellor, the Registrar, former Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof. Oguejiofor Ujam, and the Senate of the institution as first to seventh respondents.