A Lagos state high court in Ikeja on Wednesday, December 17, sentenced Samson Orijugo, the provost of Adonai advanced institute of management, to three years imprisonment for forgery.
According to court records, Orijugo issued a forged notification of result to a student, John Chibuzor Okoro, in 2015, using Lagos State University (LASU) letterhead to create the false impression that Adonai advanced institute of management was affiliated with the university.
Orijugo was arraigned on December 2nd, 2021, on a two-count charge of forgery, to which he pleaded not guilty.
His trial began on March 8th, 2022, with the prosecution calling three witnesses and tendering seven exhibits, while Orijugo testified in his defense.
The first prosecution witness, Patience Okoro, mother of the student, told the court that Orijugo introduced himself as the provost of a Benin Republic-based institution affiliated with LASU.
She recounted meeting him in May 2012 while returning from Iyana Oba market, where he handed her flyers and assured her of the affiliation.
Despite her doubts, being a LASU graduate herself, Okoro said she later visited Orijugo’s residence with her son, where he showed them transcripts purportedly on LASU letterhead.
She paid tuition, medical fees, mobilization charges, and convocation fees over time, often without receipts.
Okoro testified that her son’s certificate was never issued and that it was only in 2018, when he sought employment, that they discovered the documents were fake.
She said the experience has caused severe psychological trauma for her son.
Another prosecution witness, Ojei Oziegbe, an assistant chief state counsel at the Lagos state ministry of justice, confirmed that LASU verified there was no affiliation between the university and Adonai Institute.
Justice Modupe Nico-Clay ruled that the prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that he forged a notification of result on LASU’s letterhead to misrepresent the institute’s affiliation with the school.
The court found Orijugo guilty on both counts of forgery and sentenced him to three years imprisonment.
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