The fiasco over Senator Dino Melaye’s fraudulent claims of possessing several degrees and certificates has continued to escalate as SaharaReporters learned today that the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has discredited the senator’s assertion that he possesses a degree from the UK university. The university stated that it had absolutely no evidence that the senator received any formal education at the reputable university. LSE, which is based in London, is one of the higher institutions of learning where Mr. Melaye claimed that he had earned one certificate or another.
In an email to SaharaReporters, Candy Gibson, a Senior Media Relations Officer at LSE, stated, “We have checked our records and can find no evidence of Dino Melaye having any degree qualification from the London School of Economics and Political Science.”
Mr. Melaye, who runs no known form of business but flaunts his material possessions, especially such expensive automobiles as Bentley and Lamborghini, had claimed that he obtained seven degrees from several institutions, including Harvard and LSE. Under scrutiny, the senator’s academic claims have been exposed as bogus after a colleague of his, Senator Ali Ndume, urged the legislative body last Tuesday to probe Mr. Melaye’s educational records.
On various sites, including the official Senate online page as well as such social media forums as LinkedIn and Twitter, Mr. Melaye claimed that his educational profile includes degrees from seven universities. He created the impression that he earned three degrees from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria, his first university where he purportedly graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography. Among his discredited or questionable academic claims are the assertion that he studied at the University of Abuja for a Masters in Policy Analysis, and received degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Harvard University and a post-graduate degree from the University of Jos.
SaharaReporters has confirmed that at least two of these claims are outright falsehoods. The registrar’s office at Harvard University noted in a statement that while Mr. Melaye completed a week-long leadership seminar in November 2016, he did not graduate from the university. Then, just today, the London School of Economics and Political Science responded to our correspondent’s inquiry by stating unambiguously that there was no proof on the institution’s database that Mr. Melaye obtained any degree qualification from the school.
At one point, officials at ABU indicated their plan to make a statement on whether Mr. Melaye completed his coursework in the Department of Geography. However, they may have abandoned the plan following resistance from key officials of the Geography Department who insist that the senator never met the criteria for graduation.
Since last Tuesday when SaharaReporters broke the report that Mr. Melaye’s academic claims were hollow, the flamboyant senator tweeted a threat to sue the website for N5 billion.
Examination officers at the Department of Geography, where Mr. Melaye spent almost eight years as a student, told our correspondent that the senator never fulfilled his course requirements to graduate. They accused then Head of Department of Geography, David Ogbonna, of cooking up results to enable Mr. Melaye to evade course requirements, which included mandatory courses required for graduation.
SaharaReporters learned that since the certificate scandal broke, some top officials of ABU had been pressuring the staff of Geography Department to certify that Mr. Melaye graduated with a third class. A source at the Geography Department told our correspondent that such a certification would be fraudulent.
