By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Two officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Edwin Onyuwe and Achigili Ogoli, have been arrested by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over certificate forgery.
Two members of a certificate forgery syndicate, Sunday Okpara and Abdulrahman Razak, were also arrested forging the certificate of the University of Abuja (UniAbuja) for the officials.
They were arrested in Abuja based a petition by Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, alleging that the two officials requested promotion to officer cadre in the FRSC with forged BSc degrees in public administration from UniAbuja.
They also allegedly presented fake statements of result from the university to the FRSC for the same purpose.
Before their arrest, the FRSC had contacted UniAbuja to ascertain the authenticity of the certificates. The school wrote back confirming they were forged.
The suspects allegedly paid N500,000 bribe to an employee of the university to falsify records to back their claim.
The ICPC found that they were students of UniAbuja Distance Learning Programme but did not graduate due to poor results. Documents from UniAbuja showed they had multiple carry-overs in their courses.
Up to N430,000 was found to have been paid to the syndicate for the forgery. Onyuwe allegedly paid N230,000 and Ogoli N200,000.
Razak, who claimed to be a printer, told the ICPC that he used an original certificate from UniAbuja obtained from a friend to perfect the forgery.
Other alleged members of the syndicate include Matthias Ibitiye, Usman Danjuma, and Uchenna Ifeonu.
The case will be charged to court upon conclusion of investigation, the ICPC said.