This is just as the firm, Wealth Root, explained that
findings so far showed that the act was being perpetrated through the satellite
campuses of the university that were later scrapped.
In a statement on Monday by the General Manager, Mr Benedict
Okohnma, the company also said there was no time the management of the
university tried to interfere with the investigations.
The company added that those involved in the illegal act
were those who previously worked in those satellite campuses before they were
shut down.
“We wish to bring to the notice of the general public some
misconceptions which are already in the social and traditional media about the
alleged certificate racketeering in the Lagos State University.
“We are Wealthroot, a forensic firm contracted by the
management of LASU in 2020 under the immediate past management led by the Vice
Chancellor, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, to undertake a discreet undercover to
unravel some elements within the university suspected to be engaged in
certificate racketeering.
“On Monday last week, an online medium-saharareporters.com,
carried a story with the headline: ‘Degree for Sale: Sting Operation Exposes
Lagos State University Certificate Racketeering, Shielding Of Workers, Charging
Up To N3 million per buyer”. The story alleged that current management was
aware of the perpetrators and was even shielding them.
“We, however, wish to state categorically that the story was
full of fallacies and could put both the management and university in a bad
light. More worrisome is that saharareporters which carried the story neither
got in touch with us nor sought clarifications before going to the press. Most
disappointing, however, is the fact that saharareporters went to press while we
were yet to conclude investigations.
“On the strength of the foregoing, we wish to state the
facts of the matter thus: In the year 2020, a concerned alumnus drew the
university management’s attention to the alleged certificate racketeering going
on in the university. After that, management promptly reached out to us. This
led to commissioning us to act as an undercover agent to unravel members of the
syndicate that were involved in the act of manipulating the university server
and subsequently imputing records of non-graduates of the university.
“One of our key assignments by the university was to observe
the modus operandi of this syndicate, i.e process of recruiting their clients;
administrative and academic process up to the point of clearance, all of which
required some of us to be part of them physically. We were also detailed to
operate alongside some security agents to apprehend the perpetrators regardless
of how highly placed they were.
“During our investigation, we discovered that this act was
being perpetrated through the University External System otherwise known as
Satellite campuses and not the full-time regular academic programmes as it was
being projected in the media.
“Further findings by us also revealed that some members of
these syndicates had once worked at the university’s External System at one
point or the other, and so took advantage of the university’s resolve to wind
up the External System by clearing the backlog of yet to be graduated students
of the External System platform, otherwise known as part-time students at the
time.
“The university also charged us not to compromise standards
but to do a thorough job by taking our time to explore every patchy area. This
took us some time as we could not rush so we could gather undeniable evidence
to nail the culprits. It is also noteworthy that the university secretly
brought in the DSS, and university security guards as support hands, while the
investigation lasted.
We were also charged to put forward recommendations and
measures to prevent such ugly occurrences from further happening in the
institution and submit our findings to the University. As at the time the
saharareporters blew the story, our final report was yet to be submitted to the
university,” the statement read in part.
The firm said it constantly updated the former university
management and has been doing so with the current leadership.
It added that there was no time the current VC, Prof.
Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello or anybody else tried to cover up the matter or
interfere in its work.
It stated that the investigation would soon be concluded and
submitted to the appropriate quarters.