Alleged Certificate Fraud: Former FIIRO Boss Did Not Obtain PhD – Witness

An investigator with the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Vera Esideme on Tuesday told a Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja that a former acting Director-General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), Chima Igwe, did not obtain the PhD certificate he presented to the institute.

Igwe was arraigned in November 2021 by the ICPC for alleged certificate forgery and he pleaded not guilty.

The ICPC’s first prosecution witness, Esideme who began her testimony on Monday said one Olusanya, who is now late, was sent to the University where Igwe claimed to have acquired his doctoral degree in the Benin Republic “to enquire about the certificate and our findings revealed that the defendants completed the coursework in 1999-2002 but however he failed to defend his thesis publicly.

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“He did not actually obtain the certificate which he presented to FIIRO in 2002 which he used in getting to a level of a director in FIIRO and which also gave him the privilege of even being an acting DG of FIIRO,” the witness said.

Under cross-examination, the witness also testified that the former FIIRO DG was invited to make some statements regarding the petitions that were submitted against him.

“When Mr Igwe came to the commission, he came in the company of a friend of his, and he volunteered statements under caution and this he did on several occasions,” Esideme said.

“He volunteered statements about six times – in 2019, he came twice and in 2020 he came about four times to volunteer statements.”

The court admitted the statements in evidence as exhibits.

Continuing her testimony, the witness said “during his first statement, he informed the team that he had applied for approval to proceed for a PhD program at the University of Abomey Calabi.

“Afterwards in 2002, he wrote to FIIRO notifying the organisation of completion of (the) programme and attaching an attestation which was written in French and interpreted into English by one Lawrence,” she stated.

The investigator said during the investigation, her team also retrieved an extract “from the body of FIIRO the minutes (of meeting) that was held on April 15, 2019.

“In our findings from the minutes, the body (FIIRO) had given the defendant an ultimatum of 30 days to present his certificate which he had failed to do. In that meeting, they discussed his inability to present his certificate.”

Through his lawyer, Clinton Nwonu, the defendant raised objections to the admissibility of the minutes of the meeting.

Nwonu said that it was not signed by the secretary and the names of the attendees were not listed.

The prosecution lawyer, Henry Emore, however, countered by arguing that One Alhaji signed the meeting as the chairman.

Emore also argued that the document was obtained in the course of the investigations.

Justice Sherifat Solebo upheld the objections. She noted that even though the document was retrieved in the course of the investigation, this did not mean that it should not comply with the provisions of the law. She, therefore, rejected the document.

Further proceedings have been adjourned to Wednesday, February 23.