Just in: Buhari’s anti-corruption aide resigns over cheating scandal

 – Benedicta Daudu has resigned as an adviser to President Buhari

 – She left after being accused of cheating on her exams by the Premium Times

 – Dauda served on the president’s anti-corruption committee

Benedicta Daudu, a member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Advisory Committee against Corruption, has resigned after being accused of malpractice by the Premium Times.

The executive secretary of the committee Bolaji Owasanoye, said a meeting had been held with Mrs Daudu, and she had voluntarily stepped down with immediate effect.

“The Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption has discussed the allegations against Dr Benedicta Daudu based on information in the public domain and Dr Benedicta Daudu has voluntarily stepped down from the committee until the matter is officially concluded by the university,” Mr Owasanoye said.

Mrs Daudu, an associate professor of law and head of the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law of the Faculty of Law in UNIJOS, was allegedly caught cheating while writing an examination for a Master’s degree in research and public policy in the faculty of social sciences of the same university.

Although she has a Masters in Law, the associate professor had been working towards another masters in Research and Public Policy.

The department later accused her of sneaking in prepared answers, also referred to as ‘chokes’ by students, during the examination for the Global Context in Public Policy course.

Sources said the matter was subsequently reported to the university’s examination committee but some students and faculty claimed the university authorities tried to cover up the scandal.

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The dean of the university’s social science faculty Prof. Ezekiel Best said it was not true that authorities were trying to cover up the matter.

“I was not even around when the incident happened,” the professor said.

“So I don’t have all the details at this time. But there is nothing like that that we are doing nothing about it.”

The Coordinator of the Research and Public Policy programme, Prof. Bonaventure Haruna, said however that he reported the matter to the dean.

READ ALSO:  President Buhari to visit Lagos on Monday

“I report to the Dean, I don’t report to any other person. So call the Dean of Social Science and ask him. He takes the next action.”

The Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, headed by prominent law professor and civil rights campaigner Itse Sagay, is mostly made up of university professors and is the intellectual wing of President Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

The mandate of the committee includes advising the president on the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign and criminal justice system.

The post Just in: Buhari’s anti-corruption aide resigns over cheating scandal appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM (Nigerian newspapers).