By Farooq Kperogi | Publish Date: Jul 21 2018 3:53AM

The reader is probably asking,“Who in the world is Ayodele James?” Well, Lebi-Ayodele James made headlines on July 13 when an Abuja High Court sentenced him to a two-year jail term-and asked him to refund N100,000 to the government in restitution-for forging an Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) certificate, a coveted professional license for accountants.

He was convicted of “forgery of certificate contrary to section 25(1)(a) and punishable under section 25(1)(b) of the ICPC Act 2000 and being in possession of a forged document contrary to section 368 of the Penal code CAP 532, Laws of the FCT Nigeria 2006.”He was also convicted of parlaying his forged ICAN certificate into getting a promotion at the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

This would have been an unremarkable, run-off-the-mill fraud case had it not come to light a little over a week after Premium Times reported that Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun forged an NYSC exemption certificate she isn’t entitled to have, and for which she has faced no consequences. By Nigerian law, Adesoun has committed at least two offenses: failure to participate in the NYSC scheme after claiming her Nigerian citizenship (since she got her bachelor’s degree before the age of 30) and forgery. She should also be prosecuted and thrown into jail like James.

James’ ICAN certificate forgery and Adeosun’s NYSC exemption certificate forgery bear many striking similarities. James owed his position as a “senior auditor” in the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation to his forged ICAN certificate. His degree, without ICAN certification, had earned him the position of an “executive officer” at the office.

Like James, Adeosun owes her current job to her forged NYSC exemption certificate since the act that established the NYSC says, “[…] it is illegal to hire a person who graduated but failed to make himself or herself available to serve, or falsify any document to the effect that he or she has served or exempted from serving.” Although Adeosun was born in the UK, she is now a Nigerian citizen and is obligated by law to participate in the one-year national youth service scheme. It is the legal precondition for her previous and current employment in Nigeria.

The Abuja high court judge who sentenced James to two years in prison without an option of fine lamented that had James’ forgery not been discovered, he could have risen to the position of Accountant-General of the Federation “in the nearest future.”You would think the judge was visualizing the unthinkable.

But Adeosun forged an NYSC certificate “in the present,” has willfully refused to acknowledge the forgery, and is still a minister. As I pointed out last week, a Louis Edozien whose credentials were found to be forged after an audit in 2014-and fired as a consequence-is now the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, Nigeria’s biggest ministry. And Okoi Obono-Obla, Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigative Panel for the Recovery of Property, was discovered to have fudged his WASC to gain admission to study law at the University. He hasn’t lost his job. So the judge’s lamentation about a bleak future he averted is insensitive to the blight of forgery in the present.

What has become clear in all of this is that in Buhari’s Nigeria, justice isn’t blind. Its blindfolds are off; it is a love-struck beholder of the president and people in the president’s good graces. The “wrath” of justice is reserved only for the poor, the vulnerable, the uninfluential, and political opponents; in short everyone outside the orbit of the reigning power structure. It is unvarnished and unpretentious in its invidiousness and double standard.

But let this be known: No nation that punishes its poor and protects its powerful for the same offense can endure. Shehu Usman Dan Fodio was right when he said, “A kingdom can endure with unbelief, but it cannot endure with injustice.” Before him, Aristotle said, “The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.”

For every second that James remains in jail while Adeosun, Edozien, and Obono-Obla not only walk free but live off the fat of the land even when they committed the same offense as he, the very foundation of Nigeria chips off. A nation whose foundation comes off piecemeal as a result of blatant, in-your-face judicial double standard will sooner or later give way. That was what Frederick Douglass meant when he said, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

This government has adopted a policy of willfully pigheaded silenceand insouciance when it is confronted with momentously indefensible scandals. It hopes that the legendary collective amnesia and forgiving spirit of Nigerians where infractions concern people at the upper end of the social scale would conspire with its “silent treatment” strategy to cause the scandals to taper off.But this strategy will soon wear off and the pent-up anger people have been suppressing will burst forth.It’s only a matter of time.

Either we have laws or we don’t. There is no twilight zone. If the law no longer matters, let everyone who violated the law be free. Let James be free. Let no one go to jail or pay a fine for offenses for which other people don’t even as much as get a slap on the wrist. If Buhari wants to run his government on the principles of lawlessness, he should codify this so that we would have no expectations.

In my August 6, 2016 column titled “Nigeria as a Perverse Anarchist Paradise,” I pointed out that given the absence of government in people’s everyday lives, “we might as well formalize anarchism… as our system of government” and concluded that “the stark, unsettling truth is that ordinary Nigerians have no need for government, and government has no reason to exist. The only reason government exists in Nigeria now, it would seem, is to supervise the dispensation of our national patrimony to the ruling elite and to pauperize an already traumatized and dispossessed citizenry.”

This is now truer today than it was in 2016. Nevertheless, for as long as Nigeria makes pretense to having laws, henceforth,every certificate forgery that is punished with imprisonment will always remind Nigerians of government’s criminal and hypocritical silence over the forgeries of Adeosun, Obono-Obla, Edozien, and other favored forgers.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/between-adeosun-s-forged-nysc-certificate-and-ayodele-james-fake-ican-certificate-262032.html

Either we have laws or we don’t. There is no twilight zone. If the law no longer matters, let everyone who violated the law be free. Let James be free. Let no one go to jail or pay a fine for offenses for which other people don’t even as much as get a slap on the wrist.
Investigations should be carried out in this case by the necessary authorities and anyone found guilty should face the consequence.
Say No to Injustice.

But Adeosun forged an NYSC certificate “in the present,” has willfully refused to acknowledge the forgery, and is still a minister. As I pointed out last week, a Louis Edozien whose credentials were found to be forged after an audit in 2014-and fired as a consequence-is now the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, Nigeria’s biggest ministry. And Okoi Obono-Obla, Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigative Panel for the Recovery of Property, was discovered to have fudged his WASC to gain admission to study law at the University. He hasn’t lost his job. So the judge’s lamentation about a bleak future he averted is insensitive to the blight of forgery in the present.

From smuggling in and reinstating Maina who was sack because of fraud in the last administration to bringing back Louis Edozien who was sacked for certificate forgery from the previous administration also.

Buhari's love for criminals and forgers Is so strong

What has become clear in all of this is that in Buhari’s Nigeria, justice isn’t blind. Its blindfolds are off; it is a love-struck beholder of the president and people in the president’s good graces.

It's so visible to blind and very audible to the deaf.

For every second that James remains in jail while Adeosun, Edozien, and Obono-Obla not only walk free but live off the fat of the land even when they committed the same offense as he, the very foundation of Nigeria chips off.

This Is A Quotable Quote

If Buhari wants to run his government on the principles of lawlessness, he should codify this so that we would have no expectations.

Do you think Buhari has any regard for the rule of law? A president that has flouted the court's verdict on several occasions is that president not a lawless president.

We Must Come Outta This Alive That's What I'm Sure Of.

ipobarethieves:

Talk na! Prof Kperogi is now an IPOB yoot!

post=69567942:
Interesting

What is interesting? The article, the grammar or Buhari and his government's love for forgers?

"What has become clear in all of this is that in Buhari’s Nigeria, justice isn’t blind. Its blindfolds are off; it is a love-struck beholder of the president and people in the president’s good graces. The “wrath” of justice is reserved only for the poor, the vulnerable, the uninfluential, and political opponents; in short everyone outside the orbit of the reigning power structure. It is unvarnished and unpretentious in its invidiousness and double standard"

This confirmed my continuous assertion that APC is a party of professional liars/forggers and career rogues.


A complete FRAUDULENT and morally corrupt government.

freeze001:


What is interesting? The article, the grammar or Buhari and his government's love for forgers?

Facts are sacred. You can't argue with facts. All you can just do is look on and say "interesting".

I cannot agree more that as it is, government has no reason to exist in Nigeria. Just last night, I watched a report about an oil spill in Rivers State and how it has degraded the livelihood of peasant farmers who are almost living in the state of nature. Heard their cry for help and I wondered what these ones have ever benefitted from this useless contraption. At least I drive on good roads but what do those poor lots get out of this deal.

freeze001:


What is interesting? The article, the grammar or Buhari and his government's love for forgers?

Will you make your comment on the topic or just shut up?
Guess if you haven't read from us in a day you won't have a sound sleep!
You have nothing to say about the topic but to come here and derail without letting sensible people make their contribution in Peace.
Swerve!

APC is a curse to Nigeria, tufiakwa, never again in 2019

APC and forgery
Meanwhile Oshiomole is still looking for his pry 6 cert






In short we can not continue with this....














Orubebe must hear this.

mulante:


Facts are sacred. You can't argue with facts. All you can just do is look on and say "interesting".

I cannot agree more that as it is, government has no reason to exist in Nigeria. Just last night, I watched a report about an oil spill in Rivers State and how it has degraded the livelihood of peasant farmers who are almost living in the state of nature. Heard their cry for help and I wondered what these ones have ever benefitted from this useless contraption. At least I drive on good roads but what do those poor lots get out of this deal.

I no longer watch naija news...it's more of a horror story

Now we know why the country is backwards. The so called integrity government surrounded itself with people with forged experiences.

It took Buhari 6 months to appoint these criminal saints. What a joke

HungerBAD:
By Farooq Kperogi | Publish Date: Jul 21 2018 3:53AM


The reader is probably asking,“Who in the world is Ayodele James?” Well, Lebi-Ayodele James made headlines on July 13 when an Abuja High Court sentenced him to a two-year jail term-and asked him to refund N100,000 to the government in restitution-for forging an Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) certificate, a coveted professional license for accountants.

He was convicted of “forgery of certificate contrary to section 25(1)(a) and punishable under section 25(1)(b) of the ICPC Act 2000 and being in possession of a forged document contrary to section 368 of the Penal code CAP 532, Laws of the FCT Nigeria 2006.”He was also convicted of parlaying his forged ICAN certificate into getting a promotion at the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

This would have been an unremarkable, run-off-the-mill fraud case had it not come to light a little over a week after Premium Times reported that Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun forged an NYSC exemption certificate she isn’t entitled to have, and for which she has faced no consequences. By Nigerian law, Adesoun has committed at least two offenses: failure to participate in the NYSC scheme after claiming her Nigerian citizenship (since she got her bachelor’s degree before the age of 30) and forgery. She should also be prosecuted and thrown into jail like James.

James’ ICAN certificate forgery and Adeosun’s NYSC exemption certificate forgery bear many striking similarities. James owed his position as a “senior auditor” in the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation to his forged ICAN certificate. His degree, without ICAN certification, had earned him the position of an “executive officer” at the office.

Like James, Adeosun owes her current job to her forged NYSC exemption certificate since the act that established the NYSC says, “[…] it is illegal to hire a person who graduated but failed to make himself or herself available to serve, or falsify any document to the effect that he or she has served or exempted from serving.” Although Adeosun was born in the UK, she is now a Nigerian citizen and is obligated by law to participate in the one-year national youth service scheme. It is the legal precondition for her previous and current employment in Nigeria.

The Abuja high court judge who sentenced James to two years in prison without an option of fine lamented that had James’ forgery not been discovered, he could have risen to the position of Accountant-General of the Federation “in the nearest future.”You would think the judge was visualizing the unthinkable.

But Adeosun forged an NYSC certificate “in the present,” has willfully refused to acknowledge the forgery, and is still a minister. As I pointed out last week, a Louis Edozien whose credentials were found to be forged after an audit in 2014-and fired as a consequence-is now the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing, Nigeria’s biggest ministry. And Okoi Obono-Obla, Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigative Panel for the Recovery of Property, was discovered to have fudged his WASC to gain admission to study law at the University. He hasn’t lost his job. So the judge’s lamentation about a bleak future he averted is insensitive to the blight of forgery in the present.

What has become clear in all of this is that in Buhari’s Nigeria, justice isn’t blind. Its blindfolds are off; it is a love-struck beholder of the president and people in the president’s good graces. The “wrath” of justice is reserved only for the poor, the vulnerable, the uninfluential, and political opponents; in short everyone outside the orbit of the reigning power structure. It is unvarnished and unpretentious in its invidiousness and double standard.

But let this be known: No nation that punishes its poor and protects its powerful for the same offense can endure. Shehu Usman Dan Fodio was right when he said, “A kingdom can endure with unbelief, but it cannot endure with injustice.” Before him, Aristotle said, “The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.”

For every second that James remains in jail while Adeosun, Edozien, and Obono-Obla not only walk free but live off the fat of the land even when they committed the same offense as he, the very foundation of Nigeria chips off. A nation whose foundation comes off piecemeal as a result of blatant, in-your-face judicial double standard will sooner or later give way. That was what Frederick Douglass meant when he said, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

This government has adopted a policy of willfully pigheaded silenceand insouciance when it is confronted with momentously indefensible scandals. It hopes that the legendary collective amnesia and forgiving spirit of Nigerians where infractions concern people at the upper end of the social scale would conspire with its “silent treatment” strategy to cause the scandals to taper off.But this strategy will soon wear off and the pent-up anger people have been suppressing will burst forth.It’s only a matter of time.

Either we have laws or we don’t. There is no twilight zone. If the law no longer matters, let everyone who violated the law be free. Let James be free. Let no one go to jail or pay a fine for offenses for which other people don’t even as much as get a slap on the wrist. If Buhari wants to run his government on the principles of lawlessness, he should codify this so that we would have no expectations.

In my August 6, 2016 column titled “Nigeria as a Perverse Anarchist Paradise,” I pointed out that given the absence of government in people’s everyday lives, “we might as well formalize anarchism… as our system of government” and concluded that “the stark, unsettling truth is that ordinary Nigerians have no need for government, and government has no reason to exist. The only reason government exists in Nigeria now, it would seem, is to supervise the dispensation of our national patrimony to the ruling elite and to pauperize an already traumatized and dispossessed citizenry.”

This is now truer today than it was in 2016. Nevertheless, for as long as Nigeria makes pretense to having laws, henceforth,every certificate forgery that is punished with imprisonment will always remind Nigerians of government’s criminal and hypocritical silence over the forgeries of Adeosun, Obono-Obla, Edozien, and other favored forgers.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/between-adeosun-s-forged-nysc-certificate-and-ayodele-james-fake-ican-certificate-262032.html

Lalasticlacla Mynd44

imagine if it was an Igbo man that forged his or her cert ,afonja race would saturated the cyber space with venom ...I keep saying this most professors in southwest are half baked and certificate forgers even Soyinka and should be verified ....Yoruba in a rush to present Ngozi okonjo iweala equivalent as minister of finance ended up giving us madam 16+6=24 a.k.a madam cert forger

Buhari has a weakness. He cannot sanction his appointees

And yet they would tell you that the Daura animal is fighting kwarapshin.

What I find most disgusting is the arrogance and disdain with which he ignores Nigerians when they expect him to take action against a proven criminal appointee. From Buratai to IGP Idris to Adeosun.

He simply raises his nose and tells you all to go to hell. It beats me.

This nation needs a trump-like president.

I just dislike seeing anybody associated with this corrupt government You see them jumping all over the space supporting Buhari as if the old man have the nation @ heart...

KINGOFTHEEAST:
imagine if it was an Igbo man that forged his or her cert ,afonja race would saturated the cyber space with venom ...I keep saying this most professors in southwest are half baked and certificate forgers even Soyinka and should be verified ....Yoruba in a rush to present Ngozi okonjo iweala equivalent as minister of finance ended up giving us madam 16+6=24 a.k.a madam cert forger

It was a great insult on Nigerians to replace the globally renowned, accomplished, illustrious and widely respected intellectual goddess like Ngozi with a mediocre woman of easy virtue like Kemi. A poseur who isn't even sure of what she should sound like, which is a sign of identity crisis. Today she fakes a cockney accent infused with undercurrents of Jamaican Patois abi na reggae. Tomorrow she sounds slightly Ghanaian with quasi American slur and a hint of Ijebu dialect. This useless woman that was Ogun State governor's mistress, then due to parakpoism, she was elevated to federal mistress to take over from someone whose undergarments she isn't even qualified to wash.

Nigeria is a tragedy of monumental proportions.

In Nigeria , justice is not blind ; she is actually cross-eyed.

Once you are on the side of Buhari

You are covered...
Some people are above the law under this government..

I wonder the kinda people that supports this fool of a president.. With the glaring injustices and corruption..
They are the first to scream corruption fight is on going.

Terrible

The "regime" has one eye, one arm, one leg, one ball. The other corresponding pairs are permanently disabled!

When the head is bad, what else do you expect?

people still don't understand the impunity of double standards that is pmb.

he is a walking, talking contradiction of logic, reason & integrity.

Lol....chai bros!!!! U wicked gan

KINGOFTHEEAST:
imagine if it was an Igbo man that forged his or her cert ,afonja race would saturated the cyber space with venom ...I keep saying this most professors in southwest are half baked and certificate forgers even Soyinka and should be verified ....Yoruba in a rush to present Ngozi okonjo iweala equivalent as minister of finance ended up giving us madam 16+6=24 a.k.a madam cert forger

But there should be equity in the land as what's good for the gander should also be good for the geese...what is good for Ayodele James should equally be good for Adeosun Kemi as in "prison"

Na wa ooooo..

Can prayers and fasting for this government be answered when they commit injustice and act in ways uncivilized and brutish towards its people