Female Rep in certificate forgery scandal

Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 20.01.2008

A member of the House of Representatives from one of the Southeast states (name withheld) had been dragged before the Court and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on alleged certificate forgery and electoral fraud.

The lawmaker, a female and a first in the House was alleged to have forged his way into the House of Representatives using fake certificates being a drop out from the school.

A member of her constituency, Eugene Okama, had petitioned all the security agencies including the State Security Services (SSS), the Ministry of Justice, the Independent National Electoral Commiseducation.

The petitioner said the lawmaker had contracted one of her friends who was working with an Airline in Lagos to sit for her in a GCE examination in 1994.

She said the writer of the GCE exam used her name and her passport photograph affixed on the Exam form, disclosing that the examinations were taken between November-December 1998 in Lagos with exam no 304 and with 55729 Center no.

She however asked the security agencies to investigate her claims against the lawmaker, adding, “You will discover that while the lady who sat for the exams was born in 1968, the lawmaker claimed to have been born in 1963, as clearly stated in all the documents she submitted to the INEC office.

The petitioner added, “The implication is that she used another person’s certificate for the INEC clearance for the House of Representatives election. Besides, she also forged the certificates with which she gained admission into the University for her degree course in Marketing.

An official of INEC told Sunday Tribune in Abuja that the commission had been inundated with cases of alleged certificate forgery by contestants in the last general elections, affirming that such cases were already being looked into by the Election Tribunals in different states of the federation.