Security agents will go after Nigerians with fake foreign school certificates – Education Minister, Tahir Mamman

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has stated that security agents will pursue individuals holding counterfeit school certificates from foreign countries.

In an interview with Channels TV, Mamman emphasized that those in possession of fake certificates should be considered criminals rather than victims.

This is coming after the Federal Government immediately suspended accreditation of certificates from the two francophone West African nations and launched a probe which the minister said should submit its report in three mon

According to the Minister: “I have no sympathy for such people. Instead, they are part of the criminal chain that should be arrested. 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

“We are going to extend the dragnet to countries like Uganda, Kenya, even Niger here where such institutions have been set up.   An undercover journalist had detailed how he acquired a degree from a university in Benin Republic under two months and in fact, deployed for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)