There is palpable tension in the Ekiti State House of Assembly following plans by the Police to prosecute at least nine of its members for alleged certificate forgery.
Credible sources revealed that various security agencies have conducted investigation on several petitions against 17 members of the Ekiti Assembly for forgery of their school certificates and other related crimes.
One source said that the Department of State Services (DSS) has established a prima facie case against nine of the lawmakers, who would soon be charged to court.
“After a thorough investigation on the school certificates submitted by 17 members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, we discovered that nine of the lawmakers submitted forged school certificates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Forgery is a criminal offence.
“We have submitted our report to INEC and the police. I think the police are awaiting the recommendation of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to press criminal charges against the lawmakers. They will soon face prosecution”, the source said.
Another source confirmed that INEC is already in possession of the report conducted on the forgery of the school certificates submitted for clearance by the lawmakers.
Although the Peoples Democratic Party-dominated House of Assembly had cried foul over the forgery case, claiming that its members were being witch-hunted, the source said the police is determined to proceed with the prosecution of those found to have engaged in forgery of their school certificates.
It was also gathered that some of the affected lawmakers made last-ditch efforts at replacing the controversial certificates, but met a brick wall in the unyielding INEC officials.
It was further learnt that aside petitions written by opposition parties on the certificate forgery, some disgruntled PDP members, who were dissatisfied with the party’s primaries, also wrote petitions against the lawmakers.
The hallowed chambers of the Legislature in Nigeria is inhabited by criminals – certificate forgers, thugs, drug addicts, murder suspects, corrupt politicians, looters election riggers and conspirators. But there is quite a few good members actually, but they are so few that they cannot influence anything. The governors who sponsor these criminals to the Legislature deliberately selected them over good men and women so as to blackmail them into submission so that they cannot stop the governors from looting. The security forces should dig deeper and rescue Nigeria from these criminals!