Ahead of the 2027 elections, the National Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria (NCIFCFI) has said that it planned to ensure that dubious politicians no longer contest elections with forged certificates in the country.
Pioneer President and Chairman Governing Council of the Institute, Dr. Iliyasu Gashinbaki, stated this Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the leadership of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).
He said the institute will work with IPAC to help in the authentication of documents presented by of aspirants even before the primary elections in the 2027 general elections.
Gashinbaki stated: “Politics is too important to be left in the hands of politicians. We will engage all political parties, through IPAC to see how we can strengthen the electoral management process.
“We have had several instances where we know that if forensic tools had been deployed it would have saved the country embarrassment and even the stress the electorate went through.
“A typical case in point is the case of Bayelsa where the election of an elected governor was nullified because of certificate forgery that should not have happened.
“The person that the masses elected was a different person and the court nullified it. We are talking to all the political parties in Nigeria. We have seen the decline of governance in Africa.
“For this reason, we are setting up two laboratories that would be too critical for the 2027 general elections to ensure that no dubious or forged document of any kind will be submitted by politicians during the elections.
“We have had instances of forged NYSC certificates, tax clearance certificates, academic certificates filled in by politicians like in the case of Bayelsa, to stand for elections and this leads the country to embarrassment and the electorate are shortchanged.
“We would work with IPAC to help in authentication of the documents of candidates that would stand elections before the primary elections.”
Also speaking, the National Chairman of IPAC, and National Chairman of Allied People’s Movement (APM), Yusuf Dantalle, expressed hope that the yearnings of Nigerians for a better system would be realised
“As long as we refuse to domesticate the solutions to our problems or refused to identify the foundation of our problems because I think some of these problems are self-inflicted because we know what to do to get out of the mess we’re in but somehow, for personal gain, we do not want to.
“This partnership, for me and the council, is a welcome development. It must be encouraged and consolidated. But I must tell you that you have to be prepared for challenges because it would be resisted.
“Why do I say so, we have all the enabling laws in Nigeria but sincerely, politics has been so lucrative, economically and that I think account for 70-80 percent of our problems we have. Politics is more of a business than service to a nation,” he said.