Two staff of Tansian University, 52-years-old, Joseph Tsetim and 33-year-old Austine Ortiv, are now telling the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Anambra State Police Command all they know about their alleged involvement in the issuance of fake admission letters to candidates seeking to become students of the institution.
The bubble burst for them when the authorities of the university discovered that the letters used by some of the students to secure admission into the institution were fake. The university also found out that some students who transferred to the university used fake transcripts of other universities.
The cookie of the two suspects began to crumble after the university set up a panel to investigate the issue of fake admissions and fake transcripts, and they were exposed in the process and consequently sacked. The panel heard that some of the students allegedly paid as much as N250,000 to the duo of Tsetim and Ortiv.
Several of the students affected by the fake admission/transcript scandal who had reached the final year were also punished by way of being compelled to go back to 300-Level. Some parents of the demoted students, who had political connections and access to the Presidency wrote petitions that their children who were already in year four were asked to go back to 300-Level. Their petition was forwarded to the Anambra State Police Command for investigation. This prompted the Commissioner of Police, Hassan Karma to detail the Commander of SARS, Supol James Nwafor (CSP) to go after some of the remaining indicted lecturers.
Rising to the occasion, the SARS team arrested Joseph Tsetim, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Augustine Ortiv, who was in charge of admission office on December 10, 2014.
When the SARS team searched the home of Tsetim, it found different stamps and documents of other universities, such as fake transcripts of Madonna University, transcripts and letterhead of Nasarawa State University as well as fake transcripts of Tansian University and the documents and stamp of Benue State University.
Nwafor further disclosed that the Registrar of Tansian University was invited for interrogation, adding that some other lecturers involved in the syndicate took to their heels upon hearing that two of their colleagues had been arrested. He said they are still at large.
Narrating his story of how he became a victim of the fake admission scandal now rocking Tansian University, Kalu Chide told Sunday Sun: “I attended Evangel Seminary, Ovom 1 Aba, Abia State and went to Tansian University, Oba Campus after my industrial training at Madonna University. I left Madonna University to Tansian University and I met one lecturer, Golo Azikwe who told me that he could process the admission for me. I paid N250, 000 for the transcript and got the admission letter for 2014/2015 academic year. Azikwe further promised that the transcript would be the original from my former school, Madonna University. I didn’t know it was a fake transcript. When the school authority asked me to go back to 300 level after I had paid for my 400-Level school fees, I was shocked. It was later that I discovered that I secured admission into Tansian University with a fake admission letter. Azikwe was sacked as a lecturer by the university.”
The Registrar of Tansian University, Mr. Vincent Egbuonu stated that the management ordered that the final year students with questionable academic transcript should not be processed and released pending the verification of the authenticity of their transcripts.
The affected students met with the Vice Chancellor on December 3, 2014 and were advised to defer the year of study pending verification of whether their transcripts were genuine.
Egbunonu further said: “I have never admitted any student on my own. I am not in any way connected with the generation of any transcript. The school authority set up a panel to investigate the matter and to find out whether I was involved. At the end of the day, the panel found out that I was not involved in issuance of fake admission letters.”
Tsetim, who is at the centre of the alleged scandal, was until recently a lecturer in the Department of Political Science. He joined the academic staff of the university in 2012 after graduating from Benue State University in 2000, on a monthly salary of N60,000. This perceived low salary probably opened up his mind for manipulation by the devil, who began to “advise” on how to augment his income. What seemed like a good opportunity came when the Registrar sent some candidates to him for consideration for admission into the university.
Picking up the tale, Tsetim said: “When the students came to me, I knew that their transcripts were fakes. But I wanted to make some money from them. Unfortunately, those students didn’t come back to me. I wanted to use the stamp of the institution to ‘authenticate’ the fake transcript but they did not turn up. When the men of SARS arrested me on the campus, they searched my house and recovered Madonna University transcript and letterhead as well as the stamps of different universities, including that of Benue State University and Nasarawa State University. It is true that the school authority admitted giving fake admission letters to student and some lecturers collected money from them”, he said.
Also giving his own account of the alleged scandal involving him, Ortiv who was employed by Tansian University on May 1, 2014, as an administrative staff in the admission office, discovered that some students were previously admitted into the university with fake transcripts of other institutions, so he joined the syndicate.
He said: “I followed the process of screening the students. Some students were admitted into Tansian University without involving my unit. When I was employed. In December 2014, the school authority called all the graduating students and told them that those who were graduating would repeat a year. After the decision of the school authority, I was arrested the following day.
The duo are now assured of a day in court to answer charges for their alleged crime, after the conclusion of investigation, Karma said.
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