Panic in Immigration, Prisons Services following academic certificates verification exercise

Hunt for certificate forgers and fraudsters is on in five key federal government agencies after whistleblowers within the agencies revealed startling number of men and women who catapulted to exotic positions without the requisite qualifications.

The agencies involved include Nigeria Prisons Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Fire Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, where hordes of officers were employed in questionable manners and quickly rose to head various departments. Many of them openly parade fake certificates purportedly issued by tertiary institutions.

These men and women now have less than one week (Friday April 15, 2016) to ‘honourably’ resign or risk being jailed for fraud, BDSunday can reveal.

Documents made exclusive to BDSUNDAY show that some top-ranking officers bagged Masters degrees barely two years out of secondary school. One officer has a certificate from a university in Italy where she obtained a degree in Philosophy nearly ten years before she sat for her GCE.

This discrepancy was noticed in the academic details submitted by an Assistant Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service (names withheld). The senior-ranking officer who heads one of the busiest units in Lagos State bagged a Bachelor’s degree in a foreign university (school name withheld) in 1983, followed by a Masters degree in same university in 1985, but obtained a West Africa School Certificate in 1981 and GCE in 2005.

The Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (Rtd), initiated the certificate verification exercise, which has since been revealing startling and questionable academic certifications, including degrees awarded to some top-ranking officers by ‘unknown’ universities in Europe.

“The honourable minister has directed that officers/men holding and parading fake certificates purported to have been issued by tertiary institutions be given a soft landing to retire from service honourably between now and April 15, 2016,” a source with insight to the development told BDSUNDAY.

“Any officer whose certificates are eventually certified to have been issued outside the tertiary institutions so claimed would not only face dismissal from service, but also would be prosecuted in line with the provisions of chapter 030402(a) of the public service rules,” Nigeria Immigration Service said in a circular to all of its staff dated April 1, with reference number NIS/HQ/DFU/1283/T/3, and signed by Raymond T. A. Jaja, Assistant Comptroller General (Admin).

At the Nigeria Immigration Service, the certificates verification exercise which was approved by the Comptroller General of Immigration was conducted in all commands /formations from Monday, April 4 to Friday, April 8, 2016 as indicated in a circular with reference number NIS/HQ/DFU/1283/8.

A team of four officers/men visited each zonal command of the NIS to harness the certificates and credentials of all officers and men of the NIS; the exercise was compulsory for all serving officers/men whom they ensured were physically present as no document was accepted by proxy.