The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, has arraigned a man, Owoyele Kolawole, over alleged forgery of West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, WASSCE, certificate.

The suspect was arrested for allegedly faking and being in possession of blank senior secondary school certificates.

Justice S. Adepoju of the Federal Capital Territory High Court tried him on a two count charge. The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The ICPC, in a statement by Rasheedat Okoduwa, stated that the suspect made false West African Senior School Certificates with no student information on it, with the intention that it may be filled with student information later which may be acted upon as genuine.

The arrest was said to be instigated following a petition from the federal Ministry of Education on the growing occurrence of altered WASSCE results presented for accreditation and endorsement by those seeking admission into foreign educational institutions.

The suspect allegedly ran a syndicate that specialised in producing and selling customised certificates to fraudulent applicants seeking admission into foreign institutions.

The statement added that at the time of his arrest, Kolawole was in possession of blank certificates.

He is said to operate a criminal scheme where the specifics from a genuine certificate would be transferred to a blank copy with alteration in either the grades or age, depending on what the client desired.

Justice S. Adepoju ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody, while the case was adjourned to 24th November.