A member of the President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s Presidential Advisory<\/p>\n
Committee against Corruption, Benedicta Daudu, is currently embroiled in
\nan allegation that she cheated in an examination at the University of Jos
\n(UNIJOS), on May 4, 2016, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report today.<\/p>\n
The Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, headed by
\nprominent law professor and civil rights campaigner, Itse Sagay, and made
\nup of mainly university professors, is the intellectual wing of Mr.
\nBuhari\u2019s anti-corruption war.<\/p>\n
The mandate of the committee includes advising the President on the
\nimplementation of required reforms in Nigeria\u2019s anti-corruption campaign
\nand criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Daudu, an associate professor of law and head of the Department of
\nJurisprudence and International Law of the Faculty of Law in UNIJOS, was
\nallegedly caught cheating while writing an examination for a Master\u2019s
\ndegree in Research and Public Policy in the Faculty of Social Sciences of
\nthe same university.<\/p>\n
Although she has a Masters in Law, the associate professor had been
\nworking towards another Masters in Research and Public Policy.<\/p>\n
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the department later accused her of sneaking in
\nprepared answers, also referred to as \u201cchokes\u201d by students, during the
\nexamination for the Global Context in Public Policy course.<\/p>\n
Sources said the matter was subsequently reported to the university\u2019s
\nexamination committee but some students and faculty claimed there were
\nattempts at cover-ups by the university authorities.<\/p>\n
But the Dean, Faculty of Social Science of the University, Prof. Ezekiel
\nBest, said it was not true that authorities were trying to cover up the
\nmatter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not even around when the incident happened,\u201d Mr. Best told PREMIUM
\nTIMES. \u201cSo I don\u2019t have all the details at this time. But there is nothing
\nlike that that we are doing nothing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Coordinator of the Research and Public Policy programme, Prof.
\nBonaventure Haruna, however, said he reported the matter to Dean Best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI report to the Dean,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t report to any other person. So
\ncall the Dean of Social Science and ask him. He takes the next action.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Prof Best was confronted with Prof. Haruna\u2019s claim, he simply said,
\n\u201cWhatever Prof. Haruna said is correct. He is the head of the department.\u201d<\/p>\n
When contacted for comments, the affected professor, Mrs. Daudu,
\nrepeatedly hung up the phone after questions on the incident was posed to
\nher. She declined to answer subsequent calls made to her mobile phone. She
\nalso did not respond to a text message sent to her.<\/p>\n
The public relations officer of the university, Abdullahi Abdullahi, said
\nthe matter had not been officially brought to the attention of the
\nschool\u2019s management.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to confirm whether there was anything like that, really I
\ncouldn\u2019t get any confirmation. It has not been brought to the attention of
\nmanagement. So right now I wouldn\u2019t know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the university has internal processes that deals with these
\nissues, even if there was anything like that, which I doubt much, it would
\nhave to go through the normal internal processes from the department to
\nthe faculty and then to the exam misconduct committee. It is at that stage
\nit would be brought to the appropriate authority for sanction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of UNIJOS, Hayward Mafuyai, told this
\nnewspaper via a text message that he was yet to receive any report on the
\nincident.<\/p>\n
The Executive Secretary of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
\nCorruption, Bolaji Owasanoye, initially said the committee was unaware of
\nthe incident, and asked for time for him to make an inquiry.<\/p>\n
Later, Prof. Owasanoye reverted to say Mrs. Daudu confirmed to him there
\nwas a pending allegation of examination malpractice against her but that
\nshe was working to establish her innocence.<\/p>\n
He said he would inform members of the committee of the development
\nimmediately.<\/p>\n
Courtesy: Premium Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A member of the President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Benedicta Daudu, is currently embroiled in an allegation that she cheated in an examination at the University of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n