37 policemen arraigned for forged certificates

[MrVan]

BY DEMOLA  AKINYEMI, Ilorin

Thirty-seven newly recruited police officers have been arraigned in the court for presenting forged certificates for their enlistment.

Police First Information Report, FIR, made available to Saturday Vanguard stated that investigation conducted at the State CID, Ilorin, revealed that the recruits committed the offences against them.

The suspects, who included eight women, had already spent five months at the Police College, Ilorin, before they were discovered to have presented fake certificates and other documents with which they were recruited.

The accused persons were arraigned before three magistrate courts in Ilorin on charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, impersonation and using as true, certificates known to be fake.

The FIR stated that the offences contradicted Sections 97, 363, 132, and 163 of the Penal Code Law of the Federation of Nigeria.

Saturday Vanguard reliably gathered that luck ran out against the accused persons on March12, 2012  when a screening team of detectives from the Police Headquarters, Abuja led by Deputy Superintendent U.C. Chika, arrested them for presenting the said fake documents to aide their entry into the Police Force.

It was alleged that the accused were recruited into the police force with various certificates ranging from Senior Secondary School Certificate, National Certificate of Education and University degrees among others, which were discovered to have been forged, hence they were also charged for alleged impersonation.

Apart from this, many of the recruits presented birth certificates and declarations of age which did not represent their true ages.

The prosecution which had informed the court that the alleged offences are not ordinarily bailable,  urged the court to remand them at the Federal Prisons, Ilorin pending the outcome of on-going investigations into the matter.

The defence counsel, Mr. Shina Ibiyemi of Legal Aids Council, Ilorin, however, prayed the court to release the accused on bail pending the determination of the case. However, Magistrate Bello granted 12 of the accused persons bail  in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in the like sum

 

Vanguard Nigeria