A committee set up by the Niger State Government to screen all categories of civil servants in the state has discovered that 80 percent of workers in the Ministry of Education used forged certificates. The syndicate behind the printing of the fake certificates of the state College of Education, Minna, was said to have been apprehended by the state police command. He also confessed to the crime during interrogation that he sold many of such fake certificates, which were used to secure employment in and outside the state. The Chairman of the screening committee, also disclosed that five members of staff of the institution, college of education Minna had been arrested by the police.

During the exercise, many of them could not even write their names or speak correct English. Most of them are teachers and one wonders the type of knowledge they have been imparting on the students,” the chairman lamented. He announced that all those involved had been sacked and would be replaced with those with genuine certificates. Meanwhile the chairman said members of the screening committee were being threatened by faceless people suspected to be some of the culprits.