37 Police trainees arraign over fake certificates

No fewer than thirty-seven trainees at the Police College Ilorin were arraigned at a magistrate court sitting in Ilorin for presenting fake certificates.

The suspects, including eight women, had spent five months in the college before they were discovered to have tendered fake certificates and other documents to secure admission.

They were undergoing training and already spent five months in the college before they were discovered to have presented fake certificates and other documents with which they were recruited.

Subsequently, arraigned before three separate magistrate courts on charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, and impersonation and using as true a certificate known to be fake, which contradict sections 97, 363, 132, and 163 of the Penal Code Law of the federation of Nigeria.

Trouble began when the accused on March 12, 2012 while with a screening team of detectives from the Monitoring Unit of the Nigeria Police, Force Headquarters, Abuja led by Deputy Superintendent U.C. Chika, arrested them for issuing fake documents for the said recruitment exercise.

Chika, who 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 but were discovered to have been forged.

The complainant also said that it was also discovered that they impersonated to be holders of such certificates after the screening of the certificates they presented at the point of entry. They were also accused of presenting birth certificates and declaration of age which Police First Information Report (FIR) on the matter stated that investigation conducted at the State CID, Ilorin, revealed that they committed the offences.

Magistrate Kudus Salahu and Mercy Akinjide ordered that 25 of the accused be remanded at Federal Medium Security Prison, Mandala, Ilorin while Magistrate A. Bello granted 12 of the accused bail, each at the sum of N50,000 and two sureties in like sum.