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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American Varsity, Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT), in response however confirmed the Lagos governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour attended the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The management of the school confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that Mr Rhodes-Vivour obtained a Master\u2019s Degree in Architecture after studying at the institution between 2005 and 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mail was claimed to be a response to an enquiry made by a Nigerian on the educational status of Mr Rhodes-Vivour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tweet reads \u201cIt has been brought to my attention that the purported email below is in circulation with respect to my degree from @MIT<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is untrue and another failed strategy the opposition is using to divert your attention from having an issue-based campaign,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a followed up mail as directed, a response from Mr Hagee that all questions should be directed to MIT\u2019s News Office,. He also did not deny or confirm the authenticity of the email circulating online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PREMIUM TIMES contacted MIT\u2019s News Office, Sarah McDonnell, Deputy Director, Media Relations, responded that Mr Rhodes-Vivour indeed attended the school and earned a Master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you for reaching out. The MIT Registrar\u2019s Office can confirm that Mr Rhodes-Vivour attended MIT from 2005 to 2008 and earned a Master of Architecture degree,\u201d Ms McDonnell wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cvariation of Mr Rhodes-Vivour\u2019s name that did not match the information in MIT\u2019s database.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"