During a press briefing on Thursday evening in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, the Vice Chancellor of Federal University Gusau, Professor Muazu Abubakar, clarified that Dr. Bernard Ifeanyi Odoh was neither employed by the university nor ever appointed as a professor.

Professor Abubakar disclosed that the documents being paraded by Dr. Odoh — including letters of tenure appointment as a professor and confirmation of promotion to that rank, dated April 30, 2015, and November 12, 2015 — were fraudulent. He stated these letters were allegedly endorsed by former Registrar Ibrahim Bawa Kaura on November 8, 2024, six years after Kaura’s disengagement from the university. This act, Abubakar said, was part of an administrative fraud orchestrated by Dr. Odoh in collaboration with the former Vice Chancellor and Registrar of the institution.

The Vice Chancellor emphasized that Dr. Odoh had never completed the necessary processes for official employment. Despite being engaged as visiting linkage staff in the Department of Geology between July 2014 and August 2015, he neither assumed duty nor taught any course during the department’s inaugural academic session in 2014/2015. Furthermore, no letter of acceptance was submitted, nor were statutory documentation requirements fulfilled.

Professor Abubakar stated that Dr. Odoh’s alleged appointment and promotion were riddled with irregularities, lacking due process, and were entirely fraudulent. He accused the former Registrar of impersonating the current Registrar to authenticate Dr. Odoh’s fake documents using a counterfeit stamp.

"The Management of Federal University Gusau unequivocally states, based on available records, that Dr. Odoh Bernard Ifeanyi is not, and has never been, a tenured staff of the university, let alone confirmed as a professor," Abubakar declared. He added that Dr. Odoh’s claims were an attempt to exploit the university’s reputation to further his ambition of becoming Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka through deceit.

The controversy comes on the heels of President Bola Tinubu’s dissolution of the Governing Council of Nnamdi Azikiwe University and the removal of Dr. Bernard Ifeanyi Odoh as Vice Chancellor, along with Registrar Mrs. Rosemary Ifoema Nwokike. According to a statement by presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, the decision followed allegations that the council had appointed an unqualified individual as Vice Chancellor in violation of due process.