The federal government of Nigeria has released a list of at least 37 illegal universities operating in the country.
Chris Maiyaki, the Acting Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday.
According to him, arrests have been made in conjunction with security operatives.
Maiyaki stressed that the Department of State Services was involved in the clampdown on illegal institutions.
The NUC secretary urged parents to check the commission’s website for illegal and legal varsities in Nigeria so that their wards don’t fail victims of fraud.
The NUC statement comes following the suspension of degree certificates from two francophone West African countries after an undercover journalist detailed how he acquired a degree from a university in Benin Republic within six weeks and was deployed for the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.
Consequently, the federal government blacklisted 18 universities from Benin Republic and Togo.
Also, the government on Wednesday hinted at plans to extend sanctions on universities from Uganda, Kenya, Niger Republic and other African countries.
The minister of education, Tahir Mamman, also made the disclosure on Channels Television on Wednesday.
“We are not going to stop at just Benin and Togo. We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up,” Mamman said.
Mamman noted that he has no sympathy for the students who patronise such institutions, labelling them criminals who should be arrested.
The minister added that security agents will go after those with fake certificates from foreign countries who are already using them to secure opportunities in Nigeria.
“If, along the line, we can trace that there are people already in the system,. For instance, if a particular institution or operator has been operating, say in the last 10 years, we will check if we can get records of Nigerians who attended that institution.
“Once we do that, they are criminals and you know there is no timeframe to criminality. We will trace them. As long as we can lay our hands on their institutions and they are right here with us, certainly, the security agencies will go after them because they are criminals.”
Below is the Full list of unauthorized universities in Nigeria:
