According to the acting executive secretary of NUC, Chris Maiyaki,who disclosed this on Wednesday when he was speaking with Channels Television in Abuja, said that some arrests have been made in connection with the fake institutions.
Maiyaki said the Department of State Services (DSS) was involved in the clampdown on the illegal institutions and their promoters.
The NUC secretary urged parents and guardians to check the commission’s website for legal and illegal universities in Nigeria so that their children and wards don’t fall victims.
The revelations followed the suspension of degree certificates from two francophone West African countries and other countries after an undercover journalist detailed how he acquired a degree from a university in the neighbouring Benin Republic under two months and was subsequently deployed for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.
Also, in a public announcement by the Commission signed by its acting executive secretary NUC stated where the fake institutions were listed, Maiyaki said that in addition to their closure, other nine institutions/campuses, which he described as “Degree Mills”, were undergoing further investigations and/or ongoing court actions.
He explained that the purpose of the actions was to prosecute the proprietors, and recover illegal fees and charges on subscribers.
Some of the institutions shut down are National University of Nigeria, Keffi, Nasarawa State: North Central University, Otukpo, Benue State; Christ Alive Christian Seminary and University, Enugu; Richmond Open University, Arochukwu, Abia State;
West Coast University, Umuahia; Saint Clements University, lyin Ekiti, Ekiti State; Volta University College, Aba, Abia State; Illegal Satellite Campuses of Ambrose Alli University, and L.I.F.E Leadership University, Benin City, Edo State.
“For the avoidance of doubt, anybody who patronises or obtains any certificate from any of these illegal institutions does so at his or her own risk.
“Certificates obtained from these sources will not be recognised for the purposes of NYSC, employment, and further studies,” Maiyaki warned.