Former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, has declared that the newly appointed Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Amupitan, “has no integrity.”
Dalung made the remarks during an appearance on a Sunday political programme on Trust TV, where he discussed the ongoing crisis within the African Democratic Congress ADC and the electoral body’s decision to deregister the party leadership.
Recounting events from Amupitan’s tenure as Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Jos, Dalung claimed that during the 2009–2010 academic session, 16 students had their results tampered with under the dean’s watch.
According to Dalung, some students described as special cases, including serving police officers and members of the National Assembly, graduated with Second Class Upper degrees, while the academic records of 16 other students were negatively affected, preventing them from earning the same classification.
He alleged that while certain “special students” including serving police officers and members of the National Assembly graduated with Second Class Upper Division (2:1), 16 other students saw their 2:1 grades adversely affected.
I took the matter to the Faculty Board,” Dalung said. “I was threatened that if I did not step down the struggle, I would not graduate from my Master’s programme. I sacrificed my Master’s programme to fight for the students.
He added that eight of the affected students eventually had their 2:1 restored, but two were lost. Dalung claimed his own results were withheld for two years and his certificate was not issued until four or five years later.
The Amupitan I know since 1991 as a student and later in 2004 when I was lecturing at the university has no integrity,” he stated emphatically. Dalung further criticised Amupitan’s recent public warning to the ADC over its leadership crisis, describing it as evidence of the chairman’s character and an attempt to “whittle down the momentum” of the party.
The remarks come shortly after Professor Amupitan’s appointment and confirmation as INEC Chairman, a process that included security screening by the Department of State Services (DSS) and oversight by the National Assembly.
Neither Professor Amupitan nor INEC had issued a response as of the time of filing this report.
