Former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Uche Nnaji has quietly moved from the All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party and launched a 2027 Enugu State governorship campaign, despite an ongoing investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission into allegations that he forged both his University of Nigeria, Nsukka degree certificate and his National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate, allegations that have been confirmed by the university’s vice-chancellor, its registrar, the NYSC authorities, and a ministerial investigative panel.
Nnaji, who resigned as minister in October 2025, three days after Premium Times published an investigation exposing the forgery, has neither publicly announced his resignation from the APC nor formally declared his defection to the PDP. However, Samuel Anyanwu, the National Secretary of the PDP faction backed by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, confirmed on Sunday that the former minister has joined the party.
The development has drawn incredulity from Nigerians and legal practitioners who question how a person under active investigation for forging the very credentials that qualified him for public office can seek another public office on a different party platform, with legal commentator Liborous Oshoma stating that “people like the former minister should be prosecuted and banned from holding public office to serve as a deterrent to others.”
Nnaji’s move from the APC to the PDP has been conducted without any of the public declarations that typically accompany political defections in Nigeria. He has not held a press conference, issued a statement, or made any formal announcement of his departure from the APC or his arrival at the PDP.
Instead, the former minister has been “holding political gatherings with some of his supporters and PDP members in Enugu State,” according to reports, conducting what amounts to a stealth defection that avoids the media scrutiny and public questioning that a formal announcement would attract.
His spokesperson, Robert Ngwu, did not respond to calls and text messages seeking clarification on the former minister’s political status, maintaining the silence that has characterised the entire transition.
Anyanwu, while confirming Nnaji had joined the PDP, said he could not confirm whether the former minister had purchased the party’s expression of interest and nomination forms to contest the governorship primary in Enugu State. He said he could only confirm the membership.
Despite the investigation hanging over him, Nnaji has moved aggressively to establish his 2027 governorship campaign.
On Saturday, he inaugurated the “Uche Ndi Enugu Grassroots Movement,” a support group for his gubernatorial bid, and reportedly spoke on his plans for Enugu State if elected governor.
In April, Nnaji pledged to serve only one four-year term if elected, a pledge that struck many observers as remarkable given that his eligibility to hold any public office at all is in question.
“I want to state this clearly and without any ambiguity; I will serve only one term of four years if elected governor in 2027,” Nnaji stated, arguing that he would not need more than four years to “turn things around” in Enugu State.
The one-term pledge was made before he had publicly resigned from the APC or announced his defection to the PDP, indicating that the governorship campaign was being planned even before the political transition was formalised.
The certificate forgery allegations against Nnaji are not speculative or contested. They have been confirmed by multiple independent sources, each with direct knowledge of his academic and service records.
The UNN Vice-Chancellor’s Confirmation: Professor Simon Ortuanya, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, responded to a Freedom of Information letter from Premium Times confirming that Nnaji had forged his UNN degree certificate. This response came before Nnaji could obtain a court injunction blocking the release of his records.
The UNN Registrar’s Corroboration: The university’s registrar corroborated the vice-chancellor’s position, stating that although Nnaji was admitted to the university in 1981, “he neither graduated nor was issued any certificate.” The statement is unambiguous: Nnaji entered UNN but did not complete his studies and was never awarded a degree.
The NYSC’s Disownment: In response to a separate FOI letter, NYSC authorities “disowned the discharge certificate in possession of the then-minister,” meaning the national service document he presented as proof of having completed the mandatory youth service programme was not issued by the NYSC and is therefore a forgery.
The Ministerial Panel: An investigative panel set up by Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, found in March 2026 that Nnaji “indeed forged his degree and NYSC certificates,” providing an executive branch confirmation of what the academic and service institutions had already established.
Before the investigation was published, Nnaji took the extraordinary step of filing a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to block UNN and its vice-chancellor from releasing his academic records.
The suit listed as defendants the university, its vice-chancellor, the minister of education, the National Universities Commission, the registrar, former Acting Vice-Chancellor Oguejiofor Ujam, and the university’s Senate, a comprehensive attempt to prevent every institution with access to his records from disclosing them.
However, the vice-chancellor responded to Premium Times’ FOI request before Nnaji could obtain an injunction, and the information that the former minister had never graduated was already in the public domain.
Nnaji’s legal team has recently applied for an out-of-court settlement in the suit, a move that observers interpret as a recognition that the legal strategy of suppressing the records has failed and that continued litigation would only draw further attention to the forgery.
The ICPC began investigating the matter in February 2026, following the publication of the forgery allegations and Nnaji’s resignation from the cabinet.
Sources have indicated that the former minister could face prosecution if the investigation establishes wrongdoing, a threshold that appears to have been met given the confirmations from UNN, NYSC, and the ministerial panel.
However, as of this date, no charges have been filed against Nnaji, and the investigation appears to be ongoing without a publicly disclosed timeline for completion.
The delay in prosecution has drawn criticism from legal practitioners and civil society. Liborous Oshoma, speaking two months ago, criticised the government for failing to prosecute Nnaji, stating that “people like the former minister should be prosecuted and banned from holding public office to serve as a deterrent to others.”
The forgery allegations centre on documents Nnaji submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation process in 2023.
He claimed to have obtained a degree certificate from UNN, where he purportedly graduated in 1985. He also presented a NYSC discharge certificate as evidence of having completed national service.
Both documents have been established as forgeries. He never graduated from UNN. The NYSC certificate was not issued by the Corps. Yet these documents were accepted at face value during the confirmation process that installed him as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The fact that forged credentials could pass through the screening process of both the presidency and the Senate raises systemic questions about the verification procedures for public appointees. If a minister can serve for years on the basis of forged qualifications, the screening process that is supposed to ensure the competence and integrity of public officers is fundamentally broken.
Nnaji contested the 2023 Enugu State governorship election on the APC platform, meaning he presented the same credentials to INEC and the electorate that have now been established as forgeries.
His attempt to contest again in 2027, this time on the PDP platform, raises the question of whether INEC’s candidate screening process will flag the ongoing investigation and the established findings that his qualifications are forged.
Under the Electoral Act, candidates for governorship must meet certain qualification requirements, including educational credentials. If Nnaji’s degree certificate is a forgery, his claim to have the educational qualifications required for the office is itself fraudulent, which should disqualify him from contesting.
However, as the NDC’s challenge to Section 138 of the Electoral Act 2026 has highlighted, the new law has removed “qualification” as a ground for challenging election results, meaning even if Nnaji were elected with forged credentials, challenging his victory on that basis would be difficult under the current legal framework.
Nnaji’s decision to defect quietly rather than publicly appears to be a deliberate strategy to avoid the scrutiny that would accompany a formal announcement.
A public defection press conference would inevitably generate questions about the forgery investigation, the ICPC probe, and his eligibility to contest public office while under investigation for forging the credentials that qualified him for his previous office.
