“MISS Nigeria” has been stripped of her crown for lying about her age and academic qualifications, the newspaper group that sponsored this year’s pageant announced on Saturday. The Daily Times of Nigeria said that Valerie Ama Peterside was dethroned “over irregularities discovered with regard to her age and academic qualifications.” She was not born in 1975 as she claimed, but in 1971, and she did not obtain a degree from the university she attended in Zaria, northern Nigeria, according to a report by a fact-finding mission published in full by the Daily Times. The runner-up in the February pageant, Amina Eyo Ekpo, also a university student, will take over as Miss Nigeria 2001. – AFP