Facts have emerged on how Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State was reportedly duped in his desperation to shore up his waning public image which suffered a great deal since the story of his bribe scandal emerged.
The East Carolina University (ECU) said the letter Mr Ganduje got from a member of its faculty was unauthorised by the appropriate officials.
This came sequel to a investigative inquiry conducted by PREMIUM TIMES in which the university stated its official stance in a letter sent to the Kano governor.
Recalls the governor’s spokesman, Abba Anwar, had told journalists in Kano on Tuesday that the governor’s appointment was contained in a letter sent to him by the school through Victor Mbarika, a lecturer of International Center for IT and Development at East Carolina University College of Business on November 30.
The university confirmed that Mr Mbarika was its faculty member but said he had no authority to make such appointment, according to PREMIUM TIMES report.
But a report in Sahelian Times indicated that the governor was duped with active connivance of some of his close allies, who introduced Professor Victor Mbarika, a professor with East Carolina University to him.
The academic, as the university has confirmed, independently made the weird professorial appointment to Ganduje, who is, however, desperate to shore up his image which suffered a great deal since the story of his bribe videos scandal emerged, the report said.
“Mbarika has founded what he called, “International Centre for Information Technology and Development”, with a website address www.icitd.com. Curiously, the website has a banner and emblem of Southern University and A&M, a university in Louisiana.
“However, a simple google search would have saved the state government from embarrassment.
“It will only require a basic knowledge of IT to know that a university with the reputation of East Carolina will not use .com as a domain,” an IT expert told Sahelian Times.
“Few hours after Sahelian Times sent an email of enquiry about the authenticity of the award, the professor and his group developed another website with address http://demo.fancyread.com/ to cover up their scam.
“The new website carries the East Carolina University emblem and address. The website showed that the centre is located at room 349 Slay Hall, next door to Mbarika’s office whose address is room 348 Slay Hall.
The website, however, did not give an email or website address despite being listed under “Our Contact” at the bottom of the site, it only has a phone number.
“Names like: Senator Barrister Ike Ekweremadu, Olukoya Ogen, Shettima Abdulkadir Saidu, Azeez Olaniyan were found listed as “visiting Professors” to the center.
“Sahelian Times gathered that, the professor allegedly didn’t not find it difficult to convince the governor to rise to his bait.
“This is not the first time, the governor was allegedly duped by African-Americans residing in the United States, as he was once said to have been scammed by a group who awarded him US citizenship”.
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