Alleged Forgery: Lawyer Petitions IGP To Investigate Certificate Submitted To INEC By Maj. General Aminu Bande (rtd)

He made a number of observations upon which he based his request for an investigation into the issuance of the said certificate by the Police, as follows:

1. That the purported Primary School leaving certificate bears two dates at the foot thereof; one purporting to be the date the pupil signed the certificate, which was apparently altered from JAN 1976 to DEC 1976, while the second was the date on which the issuing authority (HEADMASTER) signed the certificate, that is 10 December 1987. Curiously however, even though the North Western State of Nigeria ceased to exist since February 1976 upon the creation of Sokoto State, the said Primary School Leaving Certificate was allegedly issued by the government of North-Western State of Nigeria. Also, the pupil named in the certificate was alleged to have spent only six years, as opposed to the 7 years prescribed period at the time.
2. That as part of the documents submitted to INEC for the nomination of Major General Aminu Bande (Rtd.) as Kebbi State Governorship candidate for the PDP, were documents of the Deputy Governorship candidate, one Samaila Salihu Bui. That said Samaila Bui was alleged to have attended Bui Primary school from 1967 to 1973, whereupon he was issued with a certificate by the North-Western State of Nigeria in 1973. This seemed proper knowing that as of 1973, the North-Western state was still in existence and pupils spent 7 years in primary school, as indicated above. However, while the certificate indicated it was revised in 1974, it was said to have been issued earlier-1973.
3. That a careful comparison of the certificates purportedly issued to Aminu A. Bande and Samaila Salihu Biu will show that whereas the certificate issued to Samaila was earlier in time with serial number NWS 064792, the certificate purportedly issued later in time to Aminu A. Bande, as appropriated by Major General Aminu Bande (Rtd), has serial number NWS 028021. For avoidance of doubt, the serial number of the later certificate was earlier than that of the certificate issued in 1976 or 1987- 3 or 14 years later, as the case may be.
4. That another curious feature of the certificate issued to Aminu A. Bande, is the signature of the pupil in 1976, when compared with the signature on the oath of office by 2LT Aminu Bande when he was commissioned in 1986. It is obvious that the contraption as signature of the pupil on the primary school primary school certificate in 1976, is the same as the signature on the oath of office sworn by Aminu Bande as a commissioned officer of the Nigerian Army in 1986, 10 years after the signature on the primary school certificate was allegedly appended by the same pupil. It is left to be fathomed how the pupil maintained the flow of his signature since 1976. Or could it be that the primary school certificate was procured at a time when the contraption as his signature had already already matured as shown on the document dated 20 December 1986?

Noting that the document may have formed a part of the documents presented by Major General Aminu Bande (rtd) to join the Nigerian Army, Agbanyi stated, “…we strongly suspect that the certificate was improperly obtained, it was fraudulently procured or forged, as it was impossible, amongst other things, for a non-existent entity to issue the said certificate. At the risk of repetition, as of December 1976 or December 1987 (the two dates on the certificate), there was no North-Western State that could have issued thesaid primary school certificate to Aminu A. Bande.”

The petition and attachments backing his claim were sighted by The Metro Lawyer’s (TML) correspondent and can be assessed when you click on the link below.

REQUEST TO INVESTIGATE THE CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING TO THE ISSUANC