The immediate past Minister of Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, was arrested on Wednesday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport after arriving from Enugu on a chartered flight. Sources at the airport said Nnaji would be handed over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for questioning.
The anti-graft agency has been investigating the former minister over allegations that he forged his academic certificates. He resigned from office last year following the emergence of the allegations. In mid-June, the Federal High Court ordered the ICPC to arrest Nnaji for investigation into the alleged certificate forgery. The court also authorised the commission to declare him wanted through newspapers, social media and other media platforms.
According to the ICPC, the application for the arrest warrant followed Nnaji’s repeated failure to honour invitations issued to him for questioning over the allegations. The investigation stemmed from a two-year report published by PREMIUM TIMES in October last year, which alleged that Nnaji forged his University of Nigeria, Nsukka degree certificate and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
The report alleged that the documents were submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during Nnaji’s ministerial confirmation process in 2023, as well as to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the State Security Service. The former minister later admitted that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, never issued him a degree certificate, a statement that followed the publication of the investigation. Nnaji had earlier dismissed reports of the court order, describing them as a media trial. On June 18, he filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, challenging the arrest order issued against him.
