• What we are doing to curtail culprits – Govt, NBA, in Ikeja, Lagos, the traffic lights are constantly on the blink. Chaos rattles at the junction as motorists plying Maryland, the GRA and Airport Road jostle to outwit the lights and the eagle-eyed traffic wardens hunting for defaulters.
From her perch at the Conoil Petrol Station, opposite the General Hospital, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital , Blessing led me back to her base in the premises of the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja. They are the forgers of integrity, the architects of deceit, and their canvas is the very fabric of the legal system itself. They brazenly operate in front of the Lagos High Court, lining up the sidewalk that leads to the courthouse.
Eventually, we settled for the N5,000 worth of affidavit, and I asked if we should wait for my wife to appear in person as the law requires the deponent to appear in person before the Commissioner for Oaths but she said that wasn’t necessary. “Just send me her picture. It doesn’t have to be an official passport photograph,” she said. Forgers operating in the law’s precinct
According to her, she produces other legal documentation including marriage certificates, land titles, and dissolution of marriage certificates.To confirm her claims, I took the document to the office of the Acting Chief Registrar of the Lagos High Court but even though he wasn’t on seat, officers in his department dismissed the affidavit as a fake one. “Everything about it from the stamp, and signature to the seal is fake,” said a senior officer with the department.
There is no gainsaying, fake affidavits and other legal documentation have become endemic and deeply rooted in our system, argued Olawumi. There are fake affidavits and documents everywhere, mostly at local governments, on the streets, gas stations and business centres. Banks, companies, organisations and even individuals who require affidavits do not know that what they have in their possession are fake affidavits and fake legal documents.
A fake Dissolution of Marriage certificate will cost between N150,000 and N200,000 depending on who recommends you to the tout.Further findings revealed that the cost of a real affidavit is significantly lower than the cost of a counterfeit one obtainable on the street. Legal sources indicate that there are two categories of affidavits: those used in court proceedings and those used in non-court proceedings.
Further findings revealed that it is easy for forgers to replicate security features on an affidavit as it is almost impossible to determine the authenticity of a document via on-the-spot assessment. Judicial officers and other court officials are also required to keep a record or copy of affidavits deposed before them, as the authenticity of an affidavit is verified by checking the records of the authority that administered the affidavit.
At all these locations, touts masquerading as court agents commit a series of fraudulent activities by producing fake affidavits, marriage certificates, Police Character Reports and other legal documentation featuring forged court seals, stamps and signatures. The deponent will state his name, in full, in a printed form. He must include his sex, tribe, address, religion and nationality. The applicant will depose to the information that he wants to state, which must be facts and not law. It must be duly signed before the Registrar or Commissioner for Oaths.
For age declaration, the law stipulates that no declarant under the age of 50 years could swear to an affidavit personally. He or she is required to come along with an older person such as the mother, the father, an uncle or an elder brother, who would inform the commissioner about his knowledge of the time the declarant was born as well as provide other necessary data about such a person.
Stop giving your information to people by the roadside. Please note that if you do not appear before a Commissioner for Oaths or a Notary Public, with your passport photograph and append your signature before the affidavit is executed, then it is not a genuine affidavit.” Rukayat Shonekan experienced a raw deal in the hands of such shady characters.
The four suspects arrested were subsequently arrested. According to the FCID Public Relations Officer, ASP Mayegun Aminat, upon receiving a complaint by Shonekan bothering on the falsification of the Police Character Certificate, impersonation, forgery of signatures and official stamp and obtaining money under false pretence, the FCID Annex operatives took swift action which led to the arrest of Osinowo Obafemi, 35; Sebastine Olamide, 21; Shittu Babatunde, 25; and Bilal Yekeen, 25.