Police to arraign 4 UniAbuja students over certificate forgery
The police acting on behalf of the National Examination Counthcil (NECO) has concluded plans to arraign four students of the University of Abuja for allegedly forging the certificates they used in gaining admission into the university.
The four suspects accused of forging NECO results to gain admission into the university are to be arraigned before an Abuja magistrate court by the examination body this week.
The suspects are Effiong Theresa Etim, Solomon Victor, Abdulkabir Mohammad and Yakubu Joy Adama.
The suspects who were picked up by the police and detained in Minna, Niger state, where the examination body has its headquarters were admitted into different faculties at the university.
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They were alleged to have forged the certificates and used same in gaining admission into the university.
According to the prosecutor, Chijioke Chigozie, about nine students of the university have so far been arrested, but the remaining five were still under investigation.
The arrest followed an ongoing screening exercise embarked upon by NECO on all the higher institutions in Nigeria which led to the arrest of the suspects in October 2019.
The examination body said that the move is to overhaul the institutions and its certificate issuance in order to ensure that only credible certificates are issued to the public.
‘’This is to send a strong message to students out there using fake NECO certificates,” a source from NECO said.
Meanwhile, a one-count charge has been preferred against the students by the police.
According to the charge sheet sighted by our reporter, the offence contravenes Section 364 of the Penal Code.
The one count charge reads: ”On the 18, October 2019, the registrar of the University of Abuja laid complaints to the AIG zone 7 headquarters Abuja for investigation.
“It revealed that you Effiong Theresa Etim with June 2017 NECO SSC number 501569013, Solomon Victor June 2017 NECO SSC number 10506512111, Abdulkabir Mohammad with June 2012 NECO SSC number 105016543 and Yakubu Joy Adama with June 2016 NECO SSC number 597472720.
“That these certificates upon which you gained admission or sought admission into the University of Abuja are forged certificates. You are thereby suspected to have committed the above offence.”
The case is yet to be assigned to a judge.
