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Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has arrested some suspected fraudsters, who specialised in forgery of certificates and admission letters, as well as job racketeering in Borno State.
NSCDC state commandant, Abdullahi Ibrahim, while parading the eight suspects and exhibits seized from them in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital yesterday, said the syndicates were apprehended in Maiduguri, following nine months of intensive surveillance and trail.
“Recently some fake corps members were arrested at the NYSC camps across Nigeria. This is because they got fake NYSC call up letters and certificates from criminally-minded persons like these syndicates,” the commandant disclosed.
He said the Command received complaints from residents over the forgery activities of the suspects. “Most disheartening is the fake admission letters and identity cards. Some students have gone far in their academic pursuit before they were withdrawn by their institutions,” he explained.
He said some staff of the institutions involved were identified to be part of the criminal act, calling on such institutions to sanitise their system. “There is need to weed out these elements from the system,” he counselled.
He said the proliferation of nongovernmental organisations in the state following humanitarian interventions, puts pressure on unqualified job seekers. He explained that many who were desperate in search of employment but without required certificates, resorted to fake and dubious means to procure certifications.
“The premium attached to paper qualifications by employers of labour made these unscrupulous elements have a field day,” the commandant said.
Some of the exhibits seized from the suspects included computers, fake and forged NYSC, university and polytechnic certificates, banks, and NGOs stamps among others.
Some of the suspects said they often collect as low as N2,000 or N3, 000 for a fake certificate and between N1, 500 and N2, 000 for admission letters.
