The Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has sentenced the provost of Adonai Advanced Institute of Management, Samson Orijugo, to three years’ imprisonment after finding him guilty of forging a Lagos State University notification of result to falsely suggest that his institution was affiliated with LASU.

Justice Modupe Nico-Clay, in her judgment on Wednesday, held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. She ruled that the forged document was deliberately issued by Orijugo to mislead a student, John Chibuzor Okoro, and his mother into believing that Adonai Institute had ties with LASU.

“The document was presented as genuine on an LASU letterhead to create the false impression of affiliation,” the judge said, adding that Orijugo, as an administrator, was fully aware that the claim was false.

The case stemmed from events in 2015 when Orijugo issued the forged notification of result to Okoro after claiming that Adonai Institute was linked to LASU. Okoro’s mother, Patience Okoro, testified that she met Orijugo in a commercial bus in 2012, where he introduced himself as the provost of a Benin Republic-based institution affiliated with LASU. She said he later gave her flyers and persuaded her to enrol her son.

She explained that despite her doubts as a LASU graduate, Orijugo insisted on the affiliation and later issued her son documents on LASU letterhead. Payments were made for tuition, medical fees, mobilisation, and convocation, often without receipts. She told the court that her son suffered psychological trauma when the documents were discovered to be fake during a job application in 2018.

Assistant Chief State Counsel, Ojei Oziegbe, testified that she wrote to LASU during the investigation and received confirmation that Adonai Institute had no affiliation with the university. The court admitted the correspondence as evidence.

Rejecting the defence’s argument that a LASU official should have testified, Justice Nico-Clay ruled that the documentary evidence was sufficient. She emphasised that the case was not about the issuance of a degree certificate but the forgery of a notification of result.

Orijugo, who was arraigned in December 2021 and pleaded not guilty, was convicted on two counts of forgery and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. The judgment underscores the court’s position that false claims of institutional affiliation amount to fraud and carry criminal consequences.