MIT speaks on forgery allegation against Rhodes-Vivour

The American University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has said that the governorship candidate of the Labor Party (LP) in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, attended the school.

The management of the school told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that Mr. Rhodes-Vivour obtained his Masters in Architecture after studying at the institution between 2005 and 2008.

The school was reacting to reports circulating on social media suggesting that the gubernatorial candidate did not attend the university.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour has been at the center of allegations of certificate forgery after an email purportedly from the MIT Registrar’s office surfaced on social media claiming that the candidate had not entered the institution.

The email cited Nathaniel Hagee, a coordinator in MIT’s academic records office, as saying there was no record of Mr. Rhodes-Vivour graduating from the university.

The letter was allegedly in response to questions made by Nigerians about Mr. Rhodes-Vivour’s educational status.

Mr. Rhodes-Vivour has gone through his Twitter handle react to accusations of falsification as fake news and other attempts by opponents to divert attention from issue-based campaigns.

“It has been brought to your attention that the email referred to below is in circulation regarding a degree from @MIT.

“This is untrue and another failed strategy used by the opposition to divert your attention from issue-based campaigns,” he tweeted.

On Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES contacted the MIT records office and spoke with Mr. Hagee over the phone. They asked us to write a letter on the matter.

The media immediately followed up as directed and received a response from Mr. Hagee that all questions should be directed to the MIT News Office. They also did not deny or confirm the authenticity of the emails circulating online.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the MIT News Office, Sarah McDonnell, Deputy Director, Media Relations, replied that Mr. Rhodes-Vivour did attend the school and obtained his Master’s degree.

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

This newspaper then followed up with another email to Ms McDonnell, asking whether the initial email claiming that Mr Rhodes-Vivour had not attended the school came from the records office.

READ ALSO: How Jandor, Rhodes-Vivour, Doherty in Lagos gubernatorial debate

In its response, an MIT spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the letter, noting that it did indeed come from MIT. However, he said the records office initially tracked down the use of “a variation of Mr. Rhodes-Vivour’s name that did not match the information in the MIT database.”

“The MIT Registrar’s Office was initially asked to look for a variation of Mr. Rhodes-Vivour’s name that did not match the information in the database. After further review, they were able to confirm that Mr. Rhodes-Vivour attended MIT and earned a Master of Architecture degree, as I stated in my previous email,” he said.

Mr. Rhodes-Vivour is running against the incumbent governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and 13 other candidates.

His party, LP, is popular among young people.

During the February 25 presidential election, LP’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, defeated the ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC) and the presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in the state.

Mr. Tinubu, a former governor of the state, who was the political godfather of Governor Sanwo-Olu, suffered a humiliating defeat in a state he had dominated politically for over two decades. However, he later won the presidential election.

After the victory in the presidential election in the country, the party believes that it will win the gubernatorial election on March 18.