PenCom Confirms Sacking Lawmaker’s Daughter Over Fake Certificates
By Francis Arinze Iloani
National Pension Commission (PenCom) has confirmed sacking a daughter of a federal lawmaker who has worked for the Commission with allegedly fake foreign and local university degree certificates since 2016.
Daily Trust’s investigation found that the former PenCom Staff, Deborah Ighiwiyisi Agbonayinma, was sacked on February 27, 2019, about four weeks ago, after a certificate verification exercise conducted by the Commission showed the two university certificates in her file were fake.
The sacked staff is the daughter of Honourable Ehionzuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, the member representing Egor/Ikpoba-okha of Edo State in the Federal House of Representatives.
When contacted, PenCom confirmed the sack, but top officials declined to comment further on the development.
A copy of Agbonayinma’s curriculum vitae seen by this paper, with which she was employed in PenCom stated that she obtained a B.Sc degree in Accountancy with certificate number 12129 on August 8, 2012 from Irish University Business School located on 219 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ.
However, our sources said the verification committee at PenCom found that no such university existed as a valid UK degree awarding body.
It was gathered that PenCom further confirmed through the UK Government’s site that the University is not recognised as a valid degree awarding body and a PenCom staff on training in the UK visited the address and confirmed that it is a construction site.
The Open database website for new property developments and buildings in London, UK accessed by this paper yesterday shows that there is an ongoing residential project of 89 flats on the 219-221 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ, which is supposed to be where the Irish University Business School is situated.
The open database explained that before the new projects, there were “deteriorating warehouses on the site” and in December 2015, Planning Permission was granted for demolition of existing buildings and erection of four blocks of four, five and six storey buildings to provide 89 dwellings together with ancillary parking and landscaping.
In 2009, the ‘university’ was enmeshed in a scandal as it was said to be a virtual one with no existing structure in the UK.
According to a BBC London investigation, Dr Jeffrey Wooller, the former honorary chancellor of the ‘fake’ Irish International University (IIU), faced three charges of bringing himself and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) into disrepute after his accountancy degree from the university was found to be false.
The tribunal was told by Kate Gallafent, counsel representing the Institute, that evidence revealed Dr Wooller had “involved himself deliberately in the singularly shabby business of offering bogus degrees”, the BBC London website said.
The tribunal found all the charges proved and Dr Wooller, who decided not to attend his own disciplinary tribunal, was fined £20,000 and £19,533 in legal costs.
Dr Wooler who was pressed by the media platform for comments had said that the (IUBS) was a “virtual reality organisation”.
The BBC report indicated that Dr Wooller said he “dished out” certificates to students in Malaysia because they appreciated seeing a white face.
He later explained that students from Nigeria were “not bothered who issues degrees… it does not matter to them. So long as it says degree, that’s it”.
Meanwhile, Daily Trust learnt that the certificate had earlier been flagged as fake during a similar verification exercise under the former Director General of the Commission, Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, but nothing was done about it.
Having learnt that her foreign degree was allegedly fake, Agbonayinma brought another degree in Accountancy to the Commission as a replacement from Olabisi Onabanjo University, which the University also disclaimed as fake.
A further probe at the documents showed that the Accountancy degree with 09083854 as a matriculation number was not listed as part of her academic qualifications in the original curriculum vitae submitted to PenCom, when she was employed.
The Olabisi Olabanjo University (OOU), in Ogun State, in a letter dated February 6, 2019 and signed by the University’s Principal Assistant Registrar in charge of Exams and Records, Mrs O. L. Kaka, informed PenCom that Agbonayinma’s academic records and transcripts were fake.
Her CV showed she was mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) from 2014 to 2015, but details are still sketchy on the certificate she presented to the NYSC for the mobilisation.
The CV also showed that she served as an Accountant in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Development in Edo State during her Student’s Industrial Work Experience Scheme (Scheme) from June 2008 to November 2008 one year after she was enrolled to study Accountancy in London in 2007.
When contacted, PenCom confirmed the sack, but declined to comment further on the development.
Daily Trust contacted the former PenCom staff on telephone for comments. After explaining our enquiries, she said she was driving and would return the call in five minutes. Several efforts were made to reach after that but failed.
In more efforts on Sunday, she picked the call and demanded the identity of our reporter and then hung up without giving her response.
