Certificate Forgery: American Varsity Reacts To Allegation Against Lagos Guber Candidate Of LP, Rhodes-Vivour

The foreign varsity had reacted to a report gaining trends on social media alleging that the Lagos governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour did not attend the university.

The American Varsity, Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT), in response however confirmed the Lagos governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour attended the school.

Rhodes-Vivour who is contesting for the seat of Lagos Governor against major contenders, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of APC, Tope Balogun of AA and 12 others.

The management of the school confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that Mr Rhodes-Vivour obtained a Master’s Degree in Architecture after studying at the institution between 2005 and 2008.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour has been at the centre of a certificate forgery allegation after an email that purportedly emanated from the office of the Registar of MIT appeared on social media suggesting that the candidate did not attend the institution.

The email quoted Nathaniel Hagee, who is the coordinator at MIT academic record office, that there was no record Mr Rhodes-Vivour graduated from the university.

The mail was claimed to be a response to an enquiry made by a Nigerian on the educational status of Mr Rhodes-Vivour.

In reaction, Mr Rhodes-Vivour had took to his Twitter handle to debunk the forgery allegation as fake news and another attempt by his opponents to cause unnecessary distraction from issue-based campaign.

The tweet reads “It has been brought to my attention that the purported email below is in circulation with respect to my degree from @MIT

“This is untrue and another failed strategy the opposition is using to divert your attention from having an issue-based campaign,” he tweeted.

However, On Wednesday when PREMIUM TIMES contacted the MIT records office and spoke with Mr Hagee via telephone. He requested us to write a mail on the subject.

After a followed up mail as directed, a response from Mr Hagee that all questions should be directed to MIT’s News Office,. He also did not deny or confirm the authenticity of the email circulating online.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted MIT’s News Office, Sarah McDonnell, Deputy Director, Media Relations, responded that Mr Rhodes-Vivour indeed attended the school and earned a Master’s degree.

“Thank you for reaching out. The MIT Registrar’s Office can confirm that Mr Rhodes-Vivour attended MIT from 2005 to 2008 and earned a Master of Architecture degree,” Ms McDonnell wrote.

This newspaper then followed up with another email to Ms McDonnell, asking if the initial email that claimed that Mr Rhodes-Vivour did not attend the school emanated from the record office.

In her response, MIT spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the mail, noting that it indeed emanated from MIT. She, however, claimed that the record office initially ran a search using a “variation of Mr Rhodes-Vivour’s name that did not match the information in MIT’s database.”