HURIWA asks NECO to take on Uzoh over alleged certificate scam:
The prominent civil Rights advocacy group – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has taken exception to the continuous claims by a politician in Anambra state Dr. Obinna Uzoh that senator Ifeanyi Ubah who represents Anambra south in the National Assembly parades a fake National Examination Council (NECO) certificate even against recent findings by it through a response to a FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST HURIWA made to NECO in Minna.
HURIWA also express consternation that the hierarchy of the National Examination Council whose reputation is being rubbished by the persistent claim that it issued a dud certificate to a serving Senator, it has not bothered to officially address Nigerians on this worrying development which may adversely affect the global reputation of the certificates it issue to candidates.
The Rights group stated that it was disingenuous that politicians play partisan politics with serious issues that can be interpreted as destroying the corporate image of institutions established by law and empowered to conduct examination for students just as the Rights group said if such tendencies continue and not corrected by the institutions whose corporate reputation are demolished through innuendos and media attacks, then the waning image of Nigeria globally could escalate and certificates that originate from Nigeria maybe rejected in the civilized societies.
HURIWA has therefore given the National Examination Council 76 hours ultimatum to respond to the persistent allegations on the certificate scam and put an end to the media sensationalism or it would be assumed that it has something to hide and therefore it's reputation may be rubbished. "NECO must speak up even after it has responded to official FOI REQUEST there is the need to brief Nigerians on the status of the certificate it issued Senator Ifeanyi Ubah in view of the fact that Dr. Obinna Uzor who approached a court and got a pronouncement contradicting NECO's response to our FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST has even after this unambiguous confirmation and verification of the certificate of Ifeanyi Ubah has continued to raise fresh posers on the validity of the same certificate."
“As a platform that champions the human rights of all citizens, we are disturbed by the trend of politics that have become fashionable in Anambra state whereby everything is held in disdain and profanity even when it will only take such political actors little efforts to adopt law-based means to seek for information from such institutions. It took us just less tgab a week to get a response to our FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST so why wouldn't Dr. Obinna Uzor approach NECO to ascertain the veracity and source of the certificate instead of persistently dwell in sensational media warfare. ”
The Rights group in the statement jointly endorsed by the National coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf stated that it was wrong for the politician Dr. Obinna Uzoh to continue to make such a monumental allegation even when it (HURIWA) had officially been told by NECO that indeed the certificate paraded by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah is genuine.
“We call on the management of NECO to step in and ensure that their good corporate reputation as a credible examination council is not continuously messed up in the muddy water of politics. We expect the body to officially step in and address the whole of Nigerians and clear her good image from these unwarranted political attacks."
"If the claim is that the National Examination Council lied in the official response to our freedom of information request in which it told us that senator Ifeanyi Ubah has genuine certificate, then we may consider suing them if they fail to within 78 hours address the continuous allegation against them by the Anambra politician.”
HURIWA had recently told journalists as follows: "Gentlemen, in our possession is a letter from NECO which confirms that the CERTIFICATE tendered by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah is authentic.
In a letter with the particulars as follows NECO/R/LGS/20/003, dated 23rd January, 2020, NECO was tasked to respond to as follows: Application for the authentication of NECO Certificate and Statement of Result of candidate No. 31474672FC: Ubah Ifeanyi Patrick of June 2003: No. 303865920.
The NECO examination council wrote thus:
“I am directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter on the above subject matter dated 19th January, 2020 and to reply as stated infra.”“We hereby authenticate that the facts as stated in the statement of result of a June/July 2003 (Appendix 1 of your letter) bearing the following details are correct.”
CANDIDATE NAME: UBAH IFEANYI PATRICK
REGISTRATION NUMBER: 31474672FC
EXAM YEAR: 2003
EXAM TYPE: SSCE INT.
CENTRE NUMBER: 020020
CENTRE NAME: CARDOSO HIGH SCHOOL, AJEROMI/IFELODUN
S/N SUBJECT GRADE REMARK
1. English Language C6 CREDIT
2. Mathematics C6 CREDIT
3. Biology F9 FAIL
4. Government C6 CREDIT
5. Economics C5 CREDIT
6. Literature in English C5 CREDIT
7. Commerce C5 CREDIT
8. Christian Religious Studies C6 CREDIT
Number of subjects recorded: 8(Eight) including the failed subject (Biology).Equally, we also authenticate that the facts contained in the certificate issued to you in respect of the aforementioned examination (Appendix 2 of your letter) as reproduced below are also correct:
CANDIDATE NO: 31474672FC
CANDIDATE NAME: UBAH IFEANYI PATRICK
EXAM YEAR: 2003
EXAM TYPE: SSCE INT.
CENTRE NUMBER: 020020
CENTRE NAME: CARDOSO HIGH SCHOOL, AJEROMI/IFELODUN
CERTIFICATE SERIAL NO.: 303865920
Subject Grade Interpretation
English Language C6 Credit
Mathematics C6 Credit
Christian Religious Studies C6 Credit
Commerce C5 Credit
Economics C5 Credit
Government C6 Credit
Literature in English C5 Credit
Number of subjects recorded: 7(Seven) excluding the failed subject (Biology).From the foregoing data, what appeared as a ‘discrepancy’ between the two set of data is the non-recording of Biology with F9(FAIL) in the certificate. This is easily explained by stating that the conventional and obtainable practice among examination bodies is that failed subjects are not recorded in the certificate, although they remain in the examination bodies’ database and continue to appear in both the statement of result(s) and confirmation of result(s) usually sent to educational institutions. In simple language, examination bodies do not issue certificate(s) for failed subject(s).
In all we state with every sense of duty and responsibility that both the statement of result and the certificate (Appendix 1 and 2 of your letter respectively) are genuine. They both emanated from the council and correspond with the records in our database.
Please find attached the certified true copies of the following:
1. Online (Internet) copy of the Statement of Result (which usually and still contains the failed subject: Biology in this case).
2. Confirmation of Result (which usually and still contains the failed subject: Biology in this case);
3. Broad sheet page showing the candidate’s details among other candidates (which usually and still contains the failed subject: Biology in this case); and
4. The original Certificate (which usually and does not contain the failed subject: Biology in this case).
Sir, kindly accept the assurances of the esteemed regards of the Registrar/Chief Executive. Signed by Comfort L. Kolo, Esq. (HOD, Legal & Board Affairs) for Registrar/Chief Executive.
This miscarriage of judgment is damaging to the central place if integrity in the judicial arm of government. This media briefing is to remind the Nigerian Judiciary and especially THE NATIONAL JUDICIAL COUNCIL that they can either work vigorously to compel judges to adhere principles that promote and protect judicial integrity or we wave goodbye to any sort of an INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY BECAUSE A JUDICIAL SYSTEM WHICH IS NOT ANCHORED IN THE INTEGRITY OF THE MINISTERS IN THE TEMPLE OF JUSTICE IS DOOMED".
HURIWA then asked-: "Why is Dr. Obinna Uzoh still in doubts or does he have a contrary intelligence?"