The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), has commenced trial against the ex-Director-General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), Chima Igwe, over alleged certificate fraud.
ICPC had arraigned Igwe before a Special Offences Court, Ikeja, Lagos, on three-count charges.
According to the charge sheet marked ID/15716C/2021, Igwe was accused of presenting a “false” attestation letter signifying the completion of a Ph.D. programme as a public officer.
However, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and the matter was adjourned for commencement of trial.
The commission present its Investigating Officer, Mrs Vera Esidene before Justice Sherifat Solebo led the court as it open the trial.
Being led in evidence by ICPC counsel, Mr Kehinde Adetoye, the investigator told the court that the ICPC received three petitions in 2019, calling for the investigation of Mr Chima Igwe Ph.D. certificate.
“The first was titled ‘Forged PhD Certificate by Chima Igwe,’ the second was titled ‘Call to Probe the PhD Certificate’ and the third petition was titled ‘Demand for Immediate Probe and Request for the PhD Certificate’,” she said.
The ICPC investigator said that upon receiving the petitions, the Commission assigned the case to her team and they immediately swung into action.
Part of our strategy was to write letters to the defendant, to FIIRO, invite some of the staff, we also wrote letters requesting some documents from the staff precisely the defendant’s letter of approval to enable him to seek for his Ph.D.
“We requested for the letter he submitted after he claimed to have completed the program. We also requested for his promotion letter and an extract of the board meeting minutes held at FIIRO,” she said.
Subsequently, the ICPC Counsel, Mr Adetoye tendered the three petitions that were written against Igwe and prayed it should be admitted into evidence.
In a counter-reaction, Igwe counsel, Mr Victor Opara (SAN) however objected to the admissibility of the petitions on the grounds that the petitions document were not original copies and as a result, fell short of the requirements of Section 86 of the Evidence Act.
“Where the original is not presented, a reason must be given to your lordship. There is no foundation as to where the original is.
“The makers of this document were not brought and the witness is not the maker. I refer your lordship to Section 83(1)(b) of the Evidence Act. As a result, this document remains ‘documentary hearsay’,” he said.
Responding, the lead prosecutor of the ICPC team, Mr Henry Emore said that the copies of petitions are public documents.
“The documents are from private citizens but were addressed to the Chairman, ICPC. Immediately these documents were received by the ICPC, they became public documents.
“The witness has presented the documents in their proper form and we have met all requirements for certification of the documents under Section 104 of the Evidence Act,” he said.
Justice Sherifat Solebo in a ruling admitted the petitions into evidence noting that there was no need to bring the authors of the petitions to court for the petitions to be admissible as evidence.
“The petitions are fundamental to this trial. The Certified True Copies of any public document is admissible in evidence not the original.
“There is nothing proscribing the admissibility of these three documents. I hereby admit them as Exhibits A1, A2 and A3,” Solebo said.
The case was thereafter adjourned until Feb. 22 for the continuation of trial.
RN
