Old Tortoise: Deputy Registrar UniCal, Agatha Ikposhi, Defrauds Cross River State Government and University for 8 Years Using Falsified Age

Secret Reporters

Documents have emerged on how the deputy registrar of the University of Calabar, Mrs. Agatha Ambuangeye Ikposhi have been feeding fat off the coffers of the University and the State government using a fictitious age for about 8 years.

This information was discovered in a letter from a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Joe Agi, an alumnus of the university, addressed to the controversial deputy registrar through his Calabar-based legal firm.

According to records belonging to Mrs. Ikposhi, it was revealed that the deputy registrar attended Government Primary School in Obudu, and her date of birth was reported as October 8, 1954. She also attended Holy Child Secondary School, lkom, according to another document, with her date of birth listed as October 8, 1954. Further diggings also revealed that Mrs. Ikposhi provided her date of birth as the 8th of October 1954 when she applied for her International Passport and the accompanying Yellow Form on Oath in 1975. She then traveled to India, where she studied at the University of Delhi with the aforementioned International Passport, graduating in 1979 with her date of birth listed as October 8, 1954, on her University of Delhi record.

On her return to Nigeria, Mrs. Ikposhi enlisted for the mandatory NYSC and was posted to Kaduna State with her primary engagement carried out at Federal Government College, Kaduna where again she documented her date of birth as 8th October 1954. Mrs. Ikposhi was hired by the Government of Cross River State on November 12, 1980, and her appointment was confirmed on November 12, 1982, according to records showing that she provided her date of birth as October 8, 1954, in her own handwriting. The appointment was published in the newspaper, and her date of birth was reported as October 8, 1954.

Despite the overwhelming records, Mrs. Ikposhi, displaying her trademark as an old tortoise, fraudulently wrote and claimed to the Head of Service of Cross River State on the 20th of April 2015, that she had mistakenly documented her date of birth as October 8, 1954, when her actual birth date is October 8, 1958. Surprisingly, Mrs. Ikposhi’s husband, who did not give birth to her and acted as an accomplice, fraudulently stated on April 21, 2015, that the date of birth of October 8, 1954, was an error and that his wife was born on October 8, 1958.

The document, which was signed and stamped on Monday, February 21, 2022, and copied to both the Chairman of Council of the University of Calabar, General M L Agwai, and Professor Florence Obi, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, revealed that the error was discovered after Mrs. Ikposhi had served the state for 34 years and 6 months in order to avoid retiring according to the existing rule that persons who have served for 35 years or reached the age of 60 years, whichever comes first, must retire from service.

Further investigation uncovered more fraud by the Deputy Registrar, Mrs. Agatha Ambuangeye Ikposhi, as investigations revealed that after 38 years in the Cross Rivers state civil service, she found her way to the University of Calabar via the so-called transfer of service in the year 2018 where she continued to feast and live on Government funds despite the fact that she was legally bound to leave the service on October 8, 2014, when she reached the age of 60, and was also expected to leave the service under the same provisions after she reached 35 years in service on October 8, 2015, thus had no service period remaining to be moved to University of Calabar in the year 2018.

The records presented by the legal firm affirmed that salaries and allowances received by Mrs. Agatha Ambuangeye Ikposhi from the 8th of October 2014 to date have all being fraudulently collected, and she should have refunded the funds and stopped parading herself as the Deputy Registrar of the University of Calabar.