Billy Graham Abel, Yola
The Director of Administration of Adamawa Health Services Management Board, Halilu Abba, has been dragged to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) over allegations of certificate forgery.
Halilu was alleged to have in 2013 tendered a fake Master’s degree certificate to gain promotion as the Director of Administration in the Adamawa State Health Services Management Board, and that after an official complain the ICPC had trailed the certificate to the institution which confirmed that he had in fact not obtained the said degree.
This is contained in a series of documents made available to Daily Sun at the weekend.
The documents suggest that Halilu had presented a Master’s degree in Public Administration, a certificate he supposedly obtained from the Adamawa State University, Mubi, with a date of issue being 4th September, 2013.
Preliminary investigations showed that Halilu had indeed been a student in the said institution with a view to obtaining the said Master’s degree but had not completed his studies as he had sent a letter on the 17th June, 2019 to the institution requesting to complete his studies years after tendering a certificate from the said institution.
Daily Sun gathered that some whistleblowers had alerted the ICPC of the alleged fraud in a letter dated 28th of May, 2019 requesting the Commission to check the veracity or otherwise of one Halilu Abba’s MPA certificate obtained from the Adamawa State University on 4th June, 2013, saying the officer had been using the certificate to stall the promotion of those who possessed genuine certificates from gaining promotion.
Daily Sun further gathered that the ICPC had on the 11th of June, 2019 written to the management of the university to establish the truth of the matter in respect to Halilu Abba’s certificate claim.
The management of the university had responded in a letter signed by its registrar, Yahya J Bobboi, said: “Postgraduate school has confirmed from the Department of Public Administration that the candidate in question has MPA 7091 (Research Methodology) as outstanding carryover as of July, 2019.
“The statement of result issued on 4th September, 2013 was issued without the candidate completing the MPA programme.”
The reply also contained an official attached graduation list of 2013/2014 academic session which does not have Halilu Abba’s name as one the graduands.
Evidence shows that the ICPC upon receiving the response from the institution had demanded the immediate prosecution of Halilu.
The concerned citizens were said to have also notified Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, through the Head of Service, and copied to the Speaker, Adamawa State House of Assembly, soliciting immediate action in order to restore sanity to a ministry that had already been in the spotlight for a similar case of certificate forgery by a fake medical doctor hired by the ministry.
Attempts to get Abba’s response on the allegation proved abortive as he always claimed he was unavailable or out of town.