By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
Mrs I.A.S. Onyeador, the Deputy Registrar and Unit Head of Students’ Records and Institutional Research at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, has been sanctioned by the university’s management.
She was sanctioned for publishing a false document claiming that Uche Nnaji, the former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, graduated from the school.
The sanctions against the university official were contained in a report by a seven-man investigative panel constituted by the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, on November 23, 2025, and submitted its report to the minister in December.
The panel was set up following Nnaji’s petition to the education minister over an alleged certificate forgery scandal after an investigative report published in October 2025 by an online news outlet.
Nnaji had accused senior UNN officials of unethical disclosure, document tampering and political manipulation of his academic records.
He also accused UNN’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Simon Ortuanya, and a former Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oguejiofor Ujam, of “issuing forged or unauthorised correspondence, improperly accessing his academic file, and facilitating media publications that misrepresented his academic history.”
The investigative publication by the online news platform revealed that the former minister allegedly forged his degree and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates.
The sanctions against the official followed a document reportedly issued in response to the enquiry of another online news platform by UNN’s Registrar, Mrs Celine Nnebedum, on December 21, 2023, falsely claiming that Nnaji graduated from the institution in July 1985.
However, in a letter dated May 23, 2025, in response to another enquiry on the matter from the Public Complaints Commission (PCC), Nnebedum recanted and told the PCC that the university searched its 1985 graduation records but could not find Nnaji’s name on them.
Nnebedum told the panel that she did not “personally compile or sign” the verification document forwarded to the online newspaper but delegated the responsibility to the then Deputy Registrar, Mrs Onyeador, who compiled and signed the document.
She further stated that the deputy registrar “issued the affirmative verification” to the newspaper “in error” because she and others in the Records Unit “relied on a Senate Result List that did not reflect Mr Nnaji’s final year record.”
The registrar said that the UNN management regretted the initial error, which was “inadvertent,” and has taken “appropriate steps to correct the record and strengthen internal processes.”
The Deputy Registrar, Mrs Onyeador, when summoned by the panel, admitted that she compiled and signed Nnaji’s verification document released to the Peoples Gazette.
Onyeador added that she reviewed Nnaji’s file alongside the then Director of the Legal Services Unit, Mathew Obayi, and the registrar, on whose authority she signed the verification document.
She also admitted that she and others in her unit examined available documents on Nnaji, mainly from his department, but did not check his discredited degree certificate submitted for verification, nor the Senate Approval List for the 1985 graduating set, because the documents could not be located at the time.
The probe panel’s report stated that the UNN authorities observed the “erroneous” certificate verification when they were compiling a similar verification on the same Nnaji for the PCC, which also requested it.
The panel also reported that the UNN authorities already took disciplinary actions against Onyeador “by querying and redeploying her to a different unit” because she was “found culpable in the contradictory information.”
There is currently no clear information on whether the university authorities also sanctioned the Registrar, Nnebedum, for the incident.
Recall that the seven-man probe panel, chaired by the Director of the University Education Department in the Ministry of Education, Rakiya Gambo Ilyasu, found that the former minister forged his UNN degree certificate.
