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Hours After Publishing Lagos Certificate Fraud Investigation, Board Says Verification Request Now Ready

October 12, 2018

A female staffer of the board, who did not give her name, called after ten weeks a request for verification was submitted, and barely 24 hours after the investigation was published on SaharaReporters and other news platforms.

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Following a multimedia investigation detailing certificate fraud within the Lagos State Ministry of Education and various malfeasances in national and the state Common Entrance examinations in the state, the Lagos State Examination Board has informed our correspondent that the verification result of a fake certificate obtained in the ministry is now ready.

A female staffer of the board, who did not give her name, called after ten weeks a request for verification was submitted, and barely 24 hours after the investigation was published on SaharaReporters and other news platforms. [story_link align="left"]63829[/story_link]

“You requested for verification of Deborah Funmilayo something… eerrm, is (sic) ready. The report on it is ready. You can come for it anytime,” she said over the phone.

Our correspondent had approached the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to make enquiry on how to get a First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC), but a member of the board, Ajenifuja Kazeem, contacted his friend who provided the FSCL with a fee of N15,000.

Kazeem, who was at the reception when our correspondent visited the SUBEB office at Maryland, Lagos, was quick to suggest his friend without directing our correspondent to any office, neither did he offer the visitors a register to sign.

The certificate given by Kazeem was then subjected to the verification process of the Lagos State Examination Board, but the board failed to verify the certificate for six weeks, despite collecting a fee of N5,000 for the process.

On September 4, 2018, the last day our correspondent visited the examination board at Iyana Ipaja, Lagos, the staffers manning the process were not only rude, the head of the Accounting Department, a tall dark man, vowed to make sure the verification never went through after a squabble had ensued.

The receptionist at the verification unit later told our correspondent the board would call to notify when the director’s response was ready. However, the call never came until Friday, October 12, 2018, a day after the report of the investigation was published.

The investigation also detailed how school owners and head teachers brazenly sold testimonials and result sheets of their schools.

It revealed, among other things, how government invigilators connived with teachers and parents to aid and abet cheating during the examinations.

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Education