Abuja civil servant jailed for two years after being found guilty of forging Ican certificate

OFFICE of the Auditor General of the Federation staff Lebi Ayodele James has been jailed for two years by a Federal Capital territory high court for  forging an Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (Ican) certificate.

Mr James had been arraigned on three criminal charges by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on March 26. Offences he was charged with include certificate forgery, being in possession of a forged document and giving false information.

Ruling on the matter, Justice Yusuf Halilu, who did not give the convict an option to pay a fine, ordered him to pay N100,000 in restitution. He said that Mr James would have rose to the position of the auditor-general of the federation with a forged certificate in the nearest future if the forgery had not been discovered.

According to Justice Halilu, the sentence will serve as a lesson to the convict and others who procure fake certificates and those who might intend to engage in such act in the future. Following the judgement, it was ordered that Mr James will serve his sentence at Keffi Prison in Nasarawa State.

Justice Halilu added: “The convict knew full well that he never had an Ican certificate. He forged the certificate and eventually got elevated from executive officer to a senior auditor.

“This is in a country where securing government employment is a huge challenge and with an army of graduates who have truly earned better certificate but remain unemployed. Government should scrutinise all employees on her payrole to ensure only those who deserve to be gainfully employed are employed."

Prosecutor Agbili Ezenwa had presented the forged certificate and the application letter Mr James sent to the director of administration and human resources in the auditor general’s office as evidence. Mr Ezenwa said that the convict wrote the application letter requesting to be converted and upgraded from the position of an executive officer to that of a senior auditor.