By Samuel Alonge
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An Igbosere Chief Magistrate’s Court in Lagos on Wednesday heard of how a former Examiner with the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers of Nigeria (CISN), Mr. Christopher Taiwo Asaju, forged a 1998 Higher National Diploma (HND) certificate of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin.

The revelation was made by the Principal Assistant Registrar of the polytechnic, Mr. Abdulateef Lanre-Adi, while being examined by the counsel for Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecution, Mr. Olaitan Soetan.

Leading another government lawyer, Miss Temitope Olaoye, in the criminal prosecution that has been in the court’s docket since March 2017, Soetan sought to know how Asaju obtained his National Diploma (ND) and OND from the Kwara Polytechnic, having used them to work in high-profile places.

In his response, Lanre-Adi, who came to represent the polytechnic’s registrar, Mr. Moses Salami, said the institution received a petition from a law firm, and another, from the police, “that we should investigate his studentship with the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin.”

“I was one of the officers detailed to carry out the findings. We discovered that Christopher Taiwo Asaju was our student who obtained an ND in Computer Science in 1993 but up till now has not come to claim his certificate.

“Again, one of the issues we had to investigate was an HND certificate believed to have emanated from the polytechnic.

“That HND certificate ascribed to him could not have emanated from the Kwara State Polytechnic because the original certificate of his OND in Computer Science that would have been a precondition for processing the HND is still lying with the polytechnic,” he revealed.

Lanre-Adi stressed that Asaju’s HND certificate in Computer Science purported to have been issued him by the polytechnic was apparently forged, as its security features were not those of the Kwara State Polytechnic.

“Besides, on the list of 1997/98 session of HND graduating students, his name could not be found,” he further told the court.

Lanri-Adi said all these formed the polytechnic’s response to the police enquiries, which was sent to the Lagos Zone 2 of the Nigeria Police Force, Onikan.

He pleaded with the court, saying, “The name of the Kwara State Polytechnic is a highly revered one, which goes to the reputation of the very reason for its existence; and as such, we want the court to do justice on this forgery and impersonation matter.”

But in her response, counsel to the accused person, Mrs. Taiwo Obajimi, urged for adjournment, as she prayed the court for multiple dates for her to cross-examine the prosecution witness.

Replying, the presiding Chief Magistrate, Mr. P.I. Bakare, observed that the case deserved accelerated hearing, having been in the docket since March 2017, witnessing the succession of two judges.

He thus adjourned the matter to January 8, 9 and 10 next year for continued trial.

At the inception of the case, however, Asaju had pleaded not guilty to the charges of certificate falsification and forgery preferred against him, and was admitted to bail.