Lagos State High Court Convicts Provost Over Fake LASU Notification A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has convicted and sentenced the provost of Adonai Advanced Institute of Management, Samson Orijugo, to three years' imprisonment for forgery. The conviction was handed down on Wednesday by Justice Modupe Nico-Clay, who found Orijugo guilty of forging a notification of result on the letterhead of the Lagos State University (LASU). The forgery, which dates back to 2015, involved Orijugo's claim that Adonai Institute was affiliated with LASU. However, the court found that there was no such affiliation. The case against Orijugo began in 2021, when he was arraigned on a two-count charge of forgery. He pleaded not guilty and testified in his defence, but the prosecution, led by Mrs T. Olanrewaju-Daud, presented sufficient evidence to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution called three witnesses, including Patience Okoro, the mother of a student who was deceived by Orijugo's false claims. Okoro testified that she met Orijugo in 2012, when he introduced himself as the provost of a Benin Republic-based institution affiliated with LASU. She said Orijugo issued her son a notification of result on LASU letterhead, but later discovered that the documents were fake when her son sought employment in 2018. The court also heard from Ojei Oziegbe, an Assistant Chief State Counsel at the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, who testified that a letter written to LASU during the investigation confirmed that Adonai Institute of Management was not affiliated with LASU. The letter was admitted as evidence, and the court relied on it to reject Orijugo's defence. In her judgment, Justice Nico-Clay held that the case was not about the issuance of a degree certificate, but the forgery of the notification of result. She ruled that Orijugo, as an administrator of the institution, knew the claim was false and that the documentary evidence from LASU was sufficient to prove the case. Consequently, Orijugo was convicted on both counts and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.