The state-owned Ambrose Alli University (AAU) in Ekpoma, Edo State, has requested that security agents detain and prosecute any operator of satellite campuses since it has not granted anyone authorization to manage a satellite campus on its behalf.
In a statement made over the weekend in Benin City, the university’s Head of Corporate Communications and Protocol, Mike Ade Aladenika, refuted a recent report that appeared in a national newspaper and was attributed to the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC).
The report claimed that there were satellite campuses operating under the university’s name and giving out certificates.
Aladenika urged the NUC to apprehend and prosecute anyone discovered to be operating such unlicensed campuses, even as she praised the organization’s stated determination to “investigate the proprietors and recover illegal fees and charges on subscribers.”
According to the spokesman, the Senate of the university had neither sanctioned any satellite campuses abroad or the granting of degrees in the name of the institution to those who emerged as “products” of such illegal schools.
He said: “We have continued to emphasise this. We are glad that by reportedly using the tag “illegal” for such satellite campuses, the NUC is on the same page with us.
”Anything that the university has not approved is illegal, null and void. Ambrose Alli University is a respected institution of over 40 years old, which has produced world class alumni. Its current student population stands at more than 36,000.”