The Nigeria Police Force has commenced investigations into an allegation of criminal conspiracy and forgery levelled against three high ranking management staff members of the National Assembly,OBSERVERS TIMES report
The three unnamed officials are presently holding key positions in the management hierarchy.
The 3 were reportedly invited by the Federal Capital Territory Police Command, on two occasions, for allegedly falsifying their dates of birth records in order to prolong their retirement period.
The probe of the three officials, reports indicate, comes after some workers petitioned the Clerk to the National Assembly and the Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC).
The parliamentary staff, under the banner of ‘Concerned Staff of National Assembly’, championed the petition.
They accused six officers of falsifying their ages so as to extend their stay in service fraudulently.
The National Assembly were believed to have responded to the petition by investigating the background of officials.
This resulted in the indictment of three of the listed officers.
The investigation report referred to “discrepancies’ in their dates of birth” as regards the officers under indictment.
One of the three affected officials was discovered to have three different dates of birth in his service record, the report said.
The report accused the said official of changing his date of birth from October 6, 1961, to October 6, 1962 and then, October 9, 1963.
report also showed that another senior worker involved allegedly changed his date of birth from September 9, 1962, as contained in his personal file at the time of appointment, to September 9, 1965, through a sworn affidavit in July 1999.
Regarding the third senior official, the report said the worker allegedly falsified his date of birth, from April 14, 1962, to the latest birth of April 14, 1964.
This falsification was discovered in the nominal roll.
The officials could likely face prosecution and dismissal from the service of the National Assembly.
An anonymous petitioner warned that the management of the National Assembly could well cover up the case due to the personality of the figures involved.
The Director of Information for the National Assembly management, Rawlings Agada, in his reaction, stated that he was not aware of the case.
“The Commission are our employers, they keep documents and records of all staff. They deal with the issues of appointment, promotion and discipline. If such issue arose, the affected officers would have been queried, and the commission would have obtained their responses,” Agada said.
“It is the commission and the management that would release such officers for prosecution after a due process had been followed because all matters dealing with criminal actions are handled by security agencies.
“I don’t think it is possible for anybody to hinder the police from carrying out their investigation,” he noted.
