FRSC officials, others held for alleged certificate forgery

Two officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have been arrested for allegedly presenting fake Bachelor of Science degree certificates to the corps. Assistant Corps Marshal (ACM) Bisi Kazeem, the Corps’ Public Education Officer, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Friday.

Kazeem said also being held were two members of a certificate forgery syndicate alleged to have forged the certificates bearing full details of the University of Abuja for the two officials of FRSC. He said that the arrest was made in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

He said that the two FRSC personnel (names withheld) presented the degree certificates during one of the corps’ conversion course exercise from non-commissioned officers to commissioned officers cadre. Kazeem said, in the course of the investigation, the anti-corruption arrested two members of a certificate forgery syndicate (names withheld).

He said that the corps marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, who was curious of the certificates, initially contacted the University of Abuja to ascertain the authenticity of the certificates and ICPC. The corps had contacted the University of Abuja to ascertain the authenticity of the certificates, which the school confirmed that the degree certificates were forged.

“The two FRSC officials were found to have allegedly paid N500,000 as bribe to falsify the records of the university to back their claim. The officials who were students of the Distance Learning programme of the university, due largely to poor performance, which translated into poor results, they could not graduate. Evidence of these discoveries were contained in various documents from the university indicating that they had multiple carry-overs in the courses registered,” he said.

He alleged that a member of the syndicate, who claimed to be a printer, told ICPC operatives that he used an original certificate from the university obtained from a friend to perfect the forgery. Kazeem said that the suspects would be charge to court after investigation.

Mike Ochonma