TheCable

The Center for Social Awareness, Advocacy and Ethics (CSAAEINC), a non-profit organisation, has called on relevant government agencies to investigate a syndicate allegedly issuing fake Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) certificates to non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Godswill Agbagwe (pictured), president of CSAARINC, made the call at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday.

The group’s president, who is in the country for some youth conferences billed to take place in Kwara and Imo states, said members of some NGOs travel out of the country under a false guise only to seek asylum thereafter.

Citing an example, he said the syndicate preys on unsuspecting NGOs who plan to attend international meetings such as the World Bank spring meetings in Washington DC, US.

He said this practice has left the World Bank civil society team worried and may affect genuine organisations who travel with genuine intent as immigration policies become stricter in the US.

Agbagwe said the fake certificates were discovered while the IMF/World Bank team were trying to verify the authenticity of some organisations that applied to be part of the 2018 World Bank spring meetings.

“One of the things I want to bring to the attention of the Nigerian government is the issue of forging of certificates by Nigerians who want to attend programmes like the IMF/World Bank Spring meetings,” he said.

“There is a website that is creating fake certificates from CAC for Nigerians. This shameful act was brought to my attention by the team. I was asked to look at some of the certificates and to confirm if the certificates were coming from CAC. I was very depressed hearing about that because that does not portray a good thing for us.

“We do not know exactly why they are doing these but these programmes are meant for civil societies who are legally registered in Nigeria but then people are going to forge certificates and to submit them to the World Bank so that they can attend this civil society policy forum.

“I do not find it very funny because it continues to question the integrity of other genuine civil society organisations who are Nigerians.

“We are calling on the Nigerian government to look into it and crack down on those who are doing these things.”