The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has secured the conviction of a former Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) official for using forged academic and service certificates to secure employment.
Muhammad Musa was convicted by Justice B. Mandy Bassi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Asokoro, Abuja, following a plea bargain agreement on a one-count amended charge.
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The IPCC provided details of the ruling on Wednesday but did not indicate the day the judgement was delivered.
The court found that Mr Musa fraudulently obtained and presented a forged Bachelor of Science degree certificate in Political Science, purportedly issued by the University of Maiduguri, as well as a forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate, to secure employment with the NIPC.
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The offence came to light after ICPC received a request from the NIPC executive secretary for a staff verification audit. During the exercise, the commission discovered that the certificates submitted by Mr Musa were not genuine. Further independent verification confirmed that both certificates were forged.
In Charge No: CR/113/25, ICPC counsel, O. R. Bada, told the court that the defendant’s actions contravened Section 25(1)(a) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
The prosecution disclosed that Mr Musa was initially arraigned on a six-count charge bordering on forgery and false statements. However, following an application for leniency and his willingness to cooperate, the charges were reduced to a single count in line with the plea bargain agreement.
The ICPC counsel submitted that the plea bargain served the interest of justice, noting that Mr Musa showed remorse and fully cooperated during the investigation and prosecution.
As part of the agreement, the defendant refunded N36.5 million, proceeds earned from the false representation, into the ICPC Recovery Account.
Emeka Izima, counsel to Mr Musa, told the court that his client was remorseful and had demonstrated genuine repentance by refunding all benefits derived from the offence.
In her judgement, Justice Bassi upheld the plea bargain agreement and sentenced Mr Musa to a non-custodial sentence, ordering him to be of good conduct and pay a fine of N50,000.
Adeosun, Nnaji cases
While the ex-NIPC official was convicted, two former ministers who were also found to have forged NYSC certificates remain free from prosecution.
PREMIUM TIMES had revealed how former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun skipped the mandatory national youth service and procured a forged exemption certificate.
The investigation was not just about whether Mrs Adeosun was required to participate in the NYSC scheme but mainly about her submission of a forged exemption certificate.
The former minister went on to use the forged document to secure high-profile employment, including her appointment as commissioner in Ogun State and later as Nigeria’s finance minister.
Following the investigation, Mrs Adeosun resigned on 14 September 2018. In her resignation letter to former President Muhammadu Buhari, she admitted that she realised the NYSC certificate she submitted for her ministerial appointment “was not genuine” after the PREMIUM TIMES report.
Although she claimed in the letter that she did not know the certificate was forged and had relied on associates who helped her obtain it after her return from the United Kingdom, she acknowledged the findings of the investigation as true.
Similarly, PREMIUM TIMES investigation published last year showed that the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, forged the credentials he submitted to President Bola Tinubu and the Nigerian Senate during his ministerial confirmation in 2023.
The findings of PREMIUM TIMES’ extensive examination of the documents were damning and conclusive: both the degree certificate and the NYSC discharge certificate in the minister’s possession are outright forgeries.
This newspaper reported that Mr Nnaji had admitted that the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), never issued him a degree certificate.
Legal provisions
Nigerian laws prescribe punishment for anyone who absconds from the NYSC scheme or forges its certificates.
Eligible Nigerians who skip the service are liable to be sentenced to 12 months imprisonment and/or a N2,000 fine, according to Section 13 of the NYSC Act.
Section 13 (3) of the Act also prescribes a three-year jail term or a N5,000 fine for anyone who contravenes the provisions of the law.
READ ALSO: Minister Nnaji’s certificate saga and the need to respect institutions, By Johnson Okolo
Subsection 4 of the same section also criminalises giving false information or illegally obtaining the agency’s certificate. It provides for a jail term of up to three years for such offenders.
Perjury is also a criminal offence. Section 117 of the Criminal Code Act says a person commits perjury if they lawfully take an oath (or affirmation) and knowingly give false testimony on a material matter, or make a statement they do not believe to be true.
Forgery is outlawed in Nigeria’s Criminal Code Act, which prescribes various jail terms for offenders upon conviction, depending on the nature of forgery.
According to Section 465 of the Act, “A person who makes a false document or writing knowing it to be false, and with intent that it may in any way be used or acted upon as genuine, whether in the State or elsewhere, to the prejudice of any person, or with intent that any person may, in the belief that it is genuine, be induced to do or refrain from doing any act, whether in the State or elsewhere, is said to forge the document or writing.”
Section 467 of the Act states that forgery is a felony that attracts a three-year jail term upon conviction.
Like the Criminal Code Act, forgery is also outlawed in the Penal Code. However, while the Criminal Code Act applies to southern Nigeria, the Penal Code covers the northern part of the country.
“Whoever commits forgery shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 14 years,” Section 364 of the Penal Code states.
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