http://www.nationaldailyngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3372:fake-waec-certificate-ring-smashed&catid=99:current-cover&Itemid=489
Fake WAEC certificate ring smashed .
EMEKA IBEMERE , As Embassy raises alert
• Two Kingpins under arrest
AS Nigerians are still trying to put behind the shame of the rows which engulfed some profile politicians in the country, who not too long ago got bad press for parading fake certificates, it appears the scam ring may have been smashed. The ring was recently exposed after a visa applicant with such fake documents was apprehended at the embassy which raised scam alert.


The fraudsters ran into troubled waters last week after Police at the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Milverton Ikoyi, Lagos burst the syndicate operating at the West African Examination Council (WAEC), office in Ogba and Yaba areas of Lagos, which specializes in issuing fake WAEC result certificates to unsuspecting Nigerians and smiling to the banks with funds from the illegal business.

SFU said the ring has been operating for long with contacts in the Abuja headquarters of the examination board, until last week's swoop on its members in Lagos which led to two arrests. Whistle was blown on the ring after a deal involving the issuance of fake WAEC result certificates, collecting huge sums of money from their victim, whose bid to use the fake material to procure student visa at the Canadian Deputy High Commission in Lagos was aborted.

The operatives gave out the names of the suspects as: Odulaja A Adekunle, a staff of WAEC and Wole Ipadeola, a staff of Comfort Zone Education, a Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) preparatory institute in Lagos.

Investigation gathered from the police revealed that the victim (name withheld) who needed a Canadian visa, had approached Wole Ipadeola, to assist him in arranging his documents to be presented at the Canadian Deputy High Commission for processing of student visa.
Wole allegedly told the victim that he would need the original WAEC result document and that the statement of result the victim was parading would not fetch him the visa. He however promised their victim that he would get one for him from the WAEC, to enable him procure the visa.
The agreement was sealed and the victim left to reappear the next day with the agreed fee. This time, National Daily learnt that Wole with his contact at the WAEC, was able to get one and allegedly used the original statement of result of the victim to alter and revised the date of birth and filled in other necessary materials in the certificate and handed it to the victim and disappeared.

At the Canadian Deputy High Commission, the certificate was discovered to be fake. The victim was arrested by the Commission's guards and turned over to the SFU for interrogation. There, the suspect gave out the name of Wole as the courier who procured the faked certificate for him.
When the police picked up Wole, he also released the name of Odulaja Adekunle, as the staff of WAEC who allegedly packages the cloned certificate for their victim. Odulaja, we gathered told the police that he procured the faked WAEC documents from the notorious Oluwole Street on the Lagos Island and had done that because of money. National Daily investigations showed that Odulaja is one of the kingpins at the WAEC buildings in Yaba and Ogba areas of Lagos state, who have been duping people with the cloned WAEC result documents. Further checks by this paper also revealed that the racketeering of WAEC results syndicate is very strong and have link in Abuja Headquarters of the examination board.
Commissioner of Police (SFU) Moses Ndagi warned parents and guardians to caution their wards and children against patronizing touts and certificate racketeers in any government offices. He said that culprits would be definitely be made to face the wrath of the law, if they fail to shun rushing after fake certificates.

Those guys deserve lengthy prison sentences.