By: Mercy Peter
The Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria (CIFCFIN), has joined the fray in the efforts towards riding the country’s polictical space against document forgery.
CIFCFIN said that it would launch a forensic laboratories to fight against document forgery, especially related to elections documentation, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Pioneer President and Chairman Governing Council, of the institute, Dr. Iliyasu Gashinbaki, disclosed this on Tuesday when he led a delegation to the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) headquarters in Abuja.
He urged political parties’ candidates to scrutinize their certificates before participating in primary election in the country and urged IPAC, as coordinate of the parties, to ensure this is enshrined in their guidelines and regulations.
“The project is not solely a Nigerian project, but a Pan-African project. We have that there is a decline in governance across Africa.
And because of that decline, where the military takes over means there is a lack of confidence or the confidence of the electorate is failing within Africa.
“The Institute has two critical laboratories that will be completely set up before the end of this year, that will be critically for 2027 general elections, in ensuring that at least for the first stage, no dubious or question document or forged documents of any kind, because we have had instances of forged academic certificates filled in by politicians.
“And at the end of the day, leave the country with huge embarrassment and electorate shortchange. So the institute through the service of this two laboratories is proposing to partner with IPAC to ensure that all political parties to work with the institution to help you with the vetting and authentication of documents of candidates that will stand elections before the primary elections,” Gashinbaki said.
Responding, the IPAC National Chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle, said the partnership is a welcome development, which must be encouraged and consolidated for the benefit of the country as nobody will solve the nation’s problems, unless citizens decide to solve it by ourselves.
“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,” Dantalle said.
