The Federal Government has fired some civil servants with degrees from private tertiary institutions in Benin Republic and Togo following the directive from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
The directive affected federal workers who graduated from the institutions from 2017 to date.
The Director of Information and Public Relations in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen, confirmed has confirmed the development.
In August, the Federal Government announced that only eight universities had been accredited to award degrees to Nigerians in Togo and Benin Republic.
This followed an undercover investigation report in which a Daily Nigerian journalist acquired a degree from a university in Benin Republic in two months and used it to participate in the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
The Federal Government also set up an Inter-Ministerial Investigative Committee on Degree Certificate Milling to probe the activities of certificate racketeers.
The then Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, revealed that over 22,500 Nigerians obtained fake degree certificates from Benin Republic and Togo and such certificates would be cancelled.
Although the exact number of affected civil servants could not be ascertained, it was gathered that the Cabinet Affairs Office in OSGF had issued a memo to all the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to implement the order.
The official stated, “There was a letter from the SGF cabinet affairs directing all ministries, departments and agencies of government to identify and terminate the appointments of workers employed with certificates obtained from the private universities in the Republic of Benin and Togo from 2017 to date.
“The decision is part of the recommendations of the committee set up to investigate the certificates of people who graduated from the universities.”
National Youth Services Corps has taken the lead to in the implementation of the directive.
The NYSC Director of Information, Caroline Embu, confirmed to Punch correspondent that five members of staff had been sacked in line with the SGF’s directive.
