NECO to arraign four Varsity students over certificate forgery

Maryam Abeeb, Abuja

The National Examination Counthcil (NECO), has concluded plans to arraign four students of the university of Abuja for allegedly forging the certificate they used in gaining admission into the institution.
The suspects are: Effiong Theresa Etim, Solomon Victor, Abdulkabir Mohammad, and Yakubu Joy Adama.
According to the prosecutor, Chijioke Chigozie, about 9 students of the university have so far been arrested but the remaining nine were still under investigation.
The arrest followed an ongoing screening execise 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 was 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 reporters, the offence contravened section 364 of the penal code.
The one count charge read: ‘’ On the 18, October, 2019, the registrar of the university of Abuja laid a complaints to the AIG zone 7 headquarters Abuja for investigation.
“It revealed that you Effiong Theresa Etim with June 2017 NECO SSC no 501569013, Solomon Victor June 2017 NECO SSC no: 10506512111, Abdulkabir Mohammad with June 2012 NECO SSC no: 105016543 and Yakubu Joy Adama with June 2016 NECO SSC no:597472720.

“That these certificate upon which you gained admission or sought admission into 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.