Nine Of Fayose’s Lawmakers To Face Trial Over Certificate Forgery

A number of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s lawmakers in Ekiti State are suspected to have forged educational certificates for the office they are occupying.

Ekiti State is back in the headlines for another controversy which this time borders on the forgery of certificates by House of Assembly members.

 

This is happening some weeks after the personal bank accounts of the Governor, Ayodele Fayose was frozen by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC over suspicions of fraud.

 

The Federal Government is planning to prosecute nine out of 26 members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly for alleged forgery of their academic results, The Punch has learnt. A security source told a reporter in Abuja on Sunday that the decision to prosecute them was based on the outcome of “an intensive investigation carried out by the Department of State Services into the state lawmakers’ certificates.’’
The DSS, it was gathered, carried out the investigation into the credentials submitted by the politicians to the Independent National Electoral Commission during the last general elections.
It was gathered that the probe was sequel to a myriad of petitions sent to the agency and the Police by aggrieved members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress.
Investigation was said to have been carried out in schools allegedly claimed to have been attended by the lawmakers and their former places of work.
The source explained that the files of the affected lawmakers had been sent to the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for prosecution.
The source added, “We have investigated the academic credentials of the lawmakers based on petitions sent to us by the politicians in the state.

“The petitions were based on alleged false declaration of academic qualifications and alleged age falsification in the papers presented to the INEC. “We have been able to know that petitions against nine members of the State House of Assembly are genuine.

“We have already presented our report and we are expecting the office of the AGF to study it and prepare the charges against the suspects.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman, Committee on Information of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr. Gboyega Aribisogan has called the report on the probe of lawmakers a ruse.